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i
\
ANTONY
CLEOPATRA
NEW-YORK
DUPRAT <ic C"
Antony and Cleopatra
'1^,
EDITION LIMITED
TO ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NLMBEKED COPIES
N<>* I to 5o. Fifty copies on Japan paper.
N<>» 5 1 to I 5o. One hundred copies on Holland paper.
NO jj
Copyright 1890, by Duprat \ C".
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
ANTONY & CLEOPATRA
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
W. J. ROLFE
AND SEVENTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS
PAUL AVRIL
U"^
*A<
iW«W'j^
NEW-YORK
DUPRAT & C°
1891
piLLic lii:rauy
ASTci;, l:.^- »:: and
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
BY W. J. ROLFE, Litt. D.
There are no portions of English and Roman history
that seem so real to us as those which Shakespeare has
made the subjects of his plays. « History i> , said Macaulay,
before he had written history, « should be a compound
of poetry and philosophy, impressing general truths on
the mind by a vivid representation of particular characters
and incidents ». The true poet, then, must be the best of
historians. He sees the mere facts or phenomena of the
past more clearly than other men do, and his penetrative
vision pierces yet deeper to the spiritual forces that work
out the phenomena; as the man of science sees the subtle
electricity behind the flash of the lightning and the roll of
the thunder. History, unless it be of the ideal type described
by Macaulay, merely writes the obituary of the dead
1^ past; Poetry calls it back from the grave, and makes it live
\D again before our eyes. The moral lessons of history are
^w Antony and Cleopatra. a
><
% • % ->
■ • * •
i
II ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
made the more impressive by this vivid presentation. The
actual life appeals to our hearts as no « moral » tagged
on at the end of the written record of it possibly could.
Shakespeare saw the life of the past with this penetrat-
ing poetic vision, and he reproduced it as perfectly as he
saw it It does not follow, as some have assumed, that he
knew the dry facts of history very thoroughly, as Bacon,
for instance, or Ben Jonson did. Ben Jonson wrott Roman
plays which, in minute attention to the details of the man-
ners and customs of the time, are far more scholarly and
accurate than Shakespeare's. He accompanies them with
hundreds of notes, giving classical quotations to illustrate
the action and the language. The work shows genuine
poetic power as well as laborious research; and yet the
result is far inferior to that of Shakespeare's less pedan-
tic treatment of kindred subjects. The latter knows less of
classical history and antiquities, but has a deeper insight
into human nature, which is essentially the same in all
ages.
Those who believe that Francis Bacon wrote the plays
ascribed to Shakespeare regard them as conspicuous illus-
trations of the classical learning of their author. The fact
is, they are conspicuous illustrations of his plentiful lack
of such learning. How is it then that the ignoramus outdoes
the scholar in setting the old Roman life truthfully before
us? How is it that the man of « small Latin » reproduces
Latin life and character with a skill to which his learned
friend and critic could never attain? As we have intimated,
it is simply because the inferior scholar is the superior
poet. Grant the combination of pre-eminent genius with
i
i. • ^
• • V
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA HI
the « small Latin d, and all is clear. Shakespeare's know-
ledge of man was almost superhuman; and as Agassiz
from a single scale could reconstruct the fish, so Shakes-
peare from a few rudimentary facts could recreate the
man or the people. His schoolboy lessons in Roman history
in the Stratford Grammar School, supplemented by his
later reading in a single volume, North's Plutarch, were
all that he needed, outside of himself, for the production
o/* Julius CiESAR, and Antony and Cleopatra, and
CORIOLANUS.
These Roman plays were not written in immediate suc-
cession, nor in the chronological order of the events upon
which they are based. Julius CiESAR, the second in the
historical sequence, was the first in the order of composi-
tion, having been written, as an allusion to it in Weever's
Mirror of Martyrs proves, before 1601, when that
book was printed. Antony and Cleopatra, though his-
torically in close connection with Julius CiESAR, was prob-
ably not written until six or seven years after that play
— in 1607 or early in 1608 — and Coriolanus, ear/i«(
in its history, was the last to be produced, the date of its
composition being fixed by the best critics between 1608
and 1610. It may have followed close upon Antony and
Cleopatra, or at an interval of one or more years.
The date mentioned for Antony and Cleopatra is
that agreed upon by nearly all the commentators. No one
of any note places it earlier than 1607, while Knight,
Verplanck, and Lloyd are the only ones who put it later
than 1608. The only piece of external evidence bearing
upon the question is the entry of an Antony and Cleo-
IV ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
PATRA in the Stationers' Registers (equivalent to our mod-
ern registration for copyright) to Edward Blount on the
20thof May, 1608. There can be little doubt that this
was Shakespeare's play, since Blount, as one of the pub-
lishers of the Folio in 1623, re-entered it among the plays
for that volum: which were « not formerly entered to
other men ». No edition having been brought out after
the entry in 1608, he thus renisserted his claim to the
copyright. It may be noted that « the booke o/* Pericles,
Prince of Tyre », was entered by Blount at the same
time with Antony and Cleopatra in 1608. No author's
name is given for either play in the entry, but PERiCLE^i
was published in quarto the following year with Shake-
speare's name on the title-page.
This external evidence to the date is strongly confirmed
by the internal evidence, drawn from metre and style, and
from the links that connect this play with others of the
same period in the poet's literary career. The critics who
count the « light endings », the « weak endings », and
other peculiarities of the verse, come to the same conclusion
with those who note the broader characteristics of style and
dramatic treatment , and with those who trace the develop-
ment of the author's mind and art as shown in the sue-
cession of the later tragedies. It is impossible to illustrate
this in detail within our present limits; but we cannot
refrain from quoting what Dowden has said on the relation
of the play to the other Roman plays and to Macbeth :
« The events of Roman history connect Antony and
Cleopatra immediately with Julius CiESAR; yet Shake-
speare allowed a number of years to pass^ during which he
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA V
was actively engaged as author, before he seems to have
thought of his second Roman play. What is the significance
of this fact i Does it not mean that the historical connec-
tion was now a connection too external and too material
to carry Shakespeare on from subject to subject, as it had
sufficed to do while he was engaged upon his series of
English historical plays? The profoundest concerns of the
individual soul were now pressing upon the imagination
of the poet. Dramas now written upon subjects taken from
history became not chronicles, but tragedies. The moral
interest was supreme. The spiritual material dealt with by
Shakespeare's imagination in the play o/" Julius Casar
lay wide apart from that which forrns the centre of the
Antony and Cleopatra. Therefore the poet was not
carried directly forward from one to the other.
But having in Macbeth (about 1606) studied the ruin
of a nature which gave fair promise in men's eyes of great-
ness and nobility, Shakespeare, it may be, proceeded directly
to a similar study in the case of Antony. In the nature
of Antony, as in the nature of Macbeth, there is a moral
fault or flaw, which circumstances discover and which in
the end works his destruction. In each play the pathos is of
the same kind, — it lies in the gradual severing of a man,
through the lust of power or through the lust of pleasure,
from his better self. By the side of Antony, as by Mac-
beth's side, there stood a terrible force in the form of a
woman, whose function it was to realize and ripen the un-
organized and undeveloped evil of his soul. Antony's sin
was an inordinate passion for enjoyment at the expense of
Roman virtue and manly energy; a prodigality of heart
VI ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
a superb egoism. After a brief interval, Shakespeare
went on to apply his imagination to the investigating of
another form of egoism, — not the egoism ofself-diffusion,
but of self ^concentration. As Antony betrays himself and
his cause through his sin of indulgence and laxity, so Co-
riolanus does violence to his own soul and to his country
through his sin of haughtiness, rigidity, and inordinate
pride. Thus an ethical tendency connects these two plays,
which are also connected in point of time; while Antony
AND Cleopatra, although historically a continuation of
Julius C/ESKKy stands separated from it, both in the chron-
ological order of Shakespeare's plays and in the logical
order assigned by successive developments of the conscience,
the intellect , and the imagination of the dramatist, »
In this, as in the other Roman plays, Shakespeare drew
his materials almost exclusively from Sir Thomas North's
translation of Bishop Amyot's French version of Plutarch's
Lives. Not only the main historical action, but also many
of the minor incidents, speeches, and touches ofcharac-
terization are taken from this source. As Trench remarks,
« we have in Plutarch not the framework or skeleton only
of the story, no, nor yet merely the ligaments and sinews,
but very much also of the flesh and blood wherewith these
are covered and clothed ». Gervinus has observed that
even single expressions and words y « such as one unac-
quainted with Plutarch would consider in form and manner
to be quite Shakespearian, and which have not unfrequen-
tly been quoted as his peculiar property y>, are not really
his but the old Greek biographer's. It is a curious illustra-
tion of this that Hazlitt cites, as a striking example of the
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA VII
imagination displayed by the poet, the passage in which
Cleopatra refers to her birthday {Act III, scene i3):
It is my birthday :
I had thought to have held it poor; but, since my lord
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
But this is taken from North : « From henceforth Cleo-
patra, to clear herself of the suspicion he had of her,
made more of him than ever she did. For first of all,
where (that is, whereas) she did solemnize the day of her
birth very meanly and sparingly, fit for her present mis-
fortune, she now, in contrary manner, did keep it with such
solemnity that she exceeded all measure of sumptuousness
and magnificence, » More than one critic has eulogized
« the high-hearted answer » of Charmian to the expostu-
lation of the Roman soldier in the final scene:
GUARD
What work is here! Charmian, is this well done?
CHARMIAN
It is well done, and fitting for a princess
Descended of so many royal kings.
But this also is from Plutarch, with slight alteration
except what is necessary to put it into verse : « One of the
soldiers seeing her, angrily said unto her : Is that well
done, Charmian f — Very well, said she again, and meet
for a princess descended from the race of so many noble
kings. »
And yet, freely as the dramatist has drawn from the
ancient authory how insignificant after all is his real in-
debtedness to him! So far as the historical materials of
the play are concerned, he may owe to him, as Trench has
VIII ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
said, not merely the skeleton, but the flesh that clothes it ;
but when we compare the finished poetry with the borrowed
prose, the latter appears only as the dry bones which the
mighty magician has transformed into a living thing of
beauty and a joy forever.
The key-note of the play is struck in the opening speech,
Demetrius and Philo see and lament the enthrallment of
Antony by the Egyptian queen, and his indifference to his
reputation and responsibilities as a soldier and a Roman :
Nay, but this dotage of our generars
O'erflows the measure : those his goodly eyes,
That o*er the files aad musters of the war
Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front ; his captain's heart.
Which in the scufHes of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneags all temper.
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gypsy's lust —
Look where they come !
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transform *d
Into a strumpet's fool. Behold and see.
If this had been made a formal prologue to the play, it
could hardly have been more appropriate and significant
(( Behold and see »> is the poet's apostrophe to the theatre
and to the world for all time. « Enter Antony and Cleo-
patra. » Behold and see the tragedy of their sin and their
fate.
The first utterances of the pair are an avowal of the
love that is to be their curse and ruin, — love lawless and
unrestrained, to which no bourn can be set while heaven
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA IX
and earth remain as they are. A messenger enters with
news from Rome; but news from his country and his home
« grates » the recreant triumvir and husband. Cleopatra,
however, would fain satisfy herself whether his « faith
unfaithful » continues « falsely true » in spite of possible
appeals from Octavius or Fulvia :
Nay, hear them, Antony.
Fulvia perchance is angry ; or who knows
If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, « Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that ;
Perform *i, or else we damn thee?... »
Perchance, — nay, and most like, —
You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.
Where *s Fulvia's process? Caesar's, I would say? both?
Call in the messengers. — As I am Egypt's queen.
Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Caesar's homager; else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds.
The sarcasm, like a poisoned arrow, goes straight to
the mark, and Antony, stung by the envenomed barb,
cries out :
Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the rang'd empire fall I Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair
(Embracing)
And such a twain can do 't, in which I bind.
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.
The die is cast, Kome and Fulvia are repudiated fully
Antony and Cleopatra. b
X ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
and finally. The « soul's tragedy n, as Browning would
have called it, is complete. The subjective ruin of the man
is consummated, and nothing remains but to show its
objective phenomena and results. The spasms of penitence
and remorse that he feels at times afterwards are but as
eddies in the swift and resistless current that sweeps him
onward and downward to his doom.
Antony is no new acquaintance in the Roman company
to whom Shakespeare introduces us. We have met and
known him in Julius CiESAR, and some of the earliest allu-
sions to him in that play give us a hint of the moral taint
that in the end undoes him. Brutus sneers at the a quick
spirit » that is in Antony and makes him « gamesome ».
The wary and sagacious Cassius, who, as Cxsar notes, is
a a great observer » and « looks quite through the deeds
of men », recognizes the real ability of the man, only the
more dangerous from his want of principle. But Brutus
sees only the profligate, « given to sports, to wildness, and
much company », who, rather than die for his friend
Cxsar, will live and laugh at his fate. And so Antony,
contrary to the judgment of Cassius, is suffered to a outlive
Cxsar ». But Cassius was right and Brutus was wrong,
as they both found out to their sorrow when Brutus —
again in the face of his politic fellow-conspirator's warn-
ing — gave Antony leave to « speak in Cxsar's funeral ».
That famous oration displayed at once the strength and
the weakness of Antony. If it had been the honest, disin-
terested, patriotic utterance it professed and seemed to be,
it would have been as noble as it was able and brilliant;
but it was simply a superb piece of demagogism. The
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA XI
speech ends with the announcement of Cxsar's gifts to the
plebeians in his will — the meanest but most effective
appeal that could be made to them. « Here was a Cxsar »
indeed for them; a when comes such another? » But what
are almost the first words of this friend of the people when
he next appears on the stage f
But, Lepidu>, go you to Caesar*s house ;
Fetch the will hither, aad we shall determine
How to cut off some charge in legacies.
Cxsar'^s eloquent executor will cheat the legatees of the
dead Dictator to the utmost degree he can. The next
moment, when Lepidus has gone on this errand, Antony
says to Octavius :
This is a slight unmeritable man,
Meet to be sent on errands; is it Bt,
The three-fold world divided, he should stand
One of the three to share it?
He goes on to plot against his partner, calling Lepidus
a mere ass, to be tolerated while he is useful as a beast of
burden, and then to be turned off, like the asSy « to shake
his ears and graze in commons » . We get only these casual
glimpses of Antony after the great scene in the forum,
but they all unite to illustrate the tricky man's utter lack
of principle. He is a profligate turned demagogue, just
as later we find him a demagogue turned profligate again.
He plays upon the Roman plebeians as upon a pipe by the
subtlety and sophistry of his oratory; but he himself be-
comes a pipe on which the Egyptian siren plays what tune
she will.
XII ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
And yet Antony, as Shakespeare brings him before us,
is not entirely unattractive. PaulStapfer aptly defines him
as « a noble nature destitute of moral sense » ; in Plu^
tarch « frankly despicable, and even positively odious,
while Shakespeare adds many happy and delicate touches
which render him, if not altogether lovable, at least an
interesting and wellnigh a beautiful character » .The dram-
atist, if not completely true to history, cannot be charged
w'th being actually false to it. As Trench has remarked,
the fact that the play starts from a late period of An-
tony's career « enables Shakespeare to leave wholly out of
sight, and this with no violation of historic truth, much
in the life of the triumvir which was wickedest and worst.
There are followers who cleave to him in his lowest estate,
even as there are fitful gleams and glimpses of generosity
which explain this fidelity of theirs; and when at the last
we behold him standing amid the wreck of fortunes and
the waste of gifts, the whole range of poetry offers no
more tragical figure than he is, few that arouse a deeper
pity. »
Cleopatra, by general consent of the critics, is the most
wonderful of all Shakespeare's feminine creations. As
Campbell the poet observes, « he paints her as if the gypsy
herself had cast her spell over him, and given her own
witchcraft to his pencil r^. There may be more in this than
a figure of rhetoric. Courtenay, Gervinus,Massey, Ward,
Furnivall, Dowden and others agree in the opinion that
the (( dark lady » of Shakespeare's Sonnets, « his own
fickle, serpent-like, attractive mistress » , may be to some
extent portrayed in the Egyptian queen. « May we
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA XIIl
dare », asks Doijpden, « to conjecture that Cleopatra, queen
and courtesan, black from « Phoebus' amorous pinches »,
a ti lass unparalleled n, has some kinship through the
imagination with the dark lady of the virginal? » Now
that we know almost certainly who this dark lady was,
this conjecture becomes far more probable. Mr, Thomas
Tyler, in his book on the Sonnets {London, 1890), has
identified her as Mary Fitton, maid of honor (God save
the mark!) to Queen Elizabeth, and mistress of William
Herbert, afterwards Earl of Pembroke. From what we
learn of her, she had « strong passions conjoined with an
imperious, masterful will ». Mr. Tyler adds : « The
queenly commanding qualities of Mrs. Fitton are not to
be mistaken. Her character, in its strength, resembles
that of her royal mistress, who declared : « / have the
heart of a king, and of a king of England too. » She
could, as we learn from Mrs. Martin, « tuck up her
clothes^ take off her head-dress, and, attired in a large
white cloak, march off, « as though she had been a man n,
to meet the Earl of Pembroke outside the court ». This re-
minds us of Cleopatra when Antony invites her to « wan-
der through the streets » at night and « note the qualities
of people ». Compare the more detailed description of
Plutarch : « Sometime also, when he {Antony) would go
up and down the city disguised like a slave in the night,
and would peer into poor men's windows and their shops,
Cleopatra would also be in a chamber-maid's array, and
amble up and down the streets with him. »
Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill ?
XIV ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Shakespeare asks the dark lady in the i Soth Sonnet. This
is like Antony's exclamation,
Fie, wrangling queen !
Whom every thing becomes;
and the declaration of Enobarbus :
For vilest things
Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.
The Sonnets would furnish many another point of resem-
blance between the English and the Egyptian courtesan,
if our present limits permitted us to follow out the com^
parison.
No critic has ever commented upon Cleopatra without
quoting the passage we all know by heart :
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety;
and therein lay the main secret of her fascination. The
wanton may have sensual charms and attractions in the
highest degree, but men are soon sated with these, and
tire of the charmer unless she have something of this versa-
tility which continually offers fresh allurements and new
forms of captivation. As Enobarbus says,
other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.
This recalls Hamlet's description of his mother :
Why she would hang on him
As if increase of appelite had grown
By what it fed on.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA XV
Cleopatra had this rare gift of her sex in utmost per fec^
tion. It was the spell that had enthralled Pompey and
Cxsar even in what she called her « salad days »; for, as
Plutarch says, « they knew her when she was but a young
thing, and knew not then what the world meant n. We
might wonder that now, at the mature age of thirty-
nine, she could retain the powers of fascination that she
possessed in the early bloom of womanhood; but, if she
had lost any personal graces that time could take away,
which is possible if not probable, the loss was more than
made up by what she had learned from long experience in
the art of love. That which was at first an instinct or
impulse had indeed become an art with her, an art of mar-
vellous complexity, of indescribable subtlety. She had car-
ried it to a degree of refinement which a woman like
Charmian, though by no means a novice in this feminine
cunning, could hardly comprehend. Cleopatra knew how
to attract by repulsion, to allure by antagonism, to lash a
man into hotter love by taunts and jeers and sarcasms.
Charmian's philosophy is of a simpler sort, and even when
her royal mistress has laughed at it she is still disposed to
cling to it.
CLEOPATRA
See where he is, who 's with him, what he does;
I did not send jou. — If you find him sad,
Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report
That I am sudden sick : quick, and return.
Exit Alexas.
CHARMIAN
Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,
You do not hold the method to enforce
The like from him.
XVI ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CLEOPATRA
What should I do, I do not?
CHARMIAN
In each thing give him way, cross him in nothing.
CLEOPATRA
Thou teachest like a fool, — the way to lose him.
CHARMIAN
Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear:
In time we hate that which we often fear.
We see, in the scene with Antony which follows, how
perfectly the queen puts her theory into practice, how she
teases and torments and irritates her lover, and laughs at
his impotent wrath, bidding Charmian note
How this Herculean Roman does become
The carriage of his chafe.
But she knows when to stop; she does not, as Charmian
has feared she might, « tempt him so too far ». After she
has worried him almost past endurance, she suddenly
checks herself and bids him farewell with genuine and fas-
cinating tenderness :
But, sir, forgive me.
Since my becomings kill me when they do not
Eye well to you. Your honour calls you hence ;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly.
And all the gods go with you. Upon your sword
Sit laurel victory! and smooth success
Be strew'd before your feet 1
Verily, as Antony has said, « she is cunning past man's
thought »> but not past woman's wit. And this cunning
is shown in almost infinitely varied ways. She can change
with every shifting mood of her lover, adapting herself to
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA XVII
his humor, or sway his mood at will, compelling him to
her own humor or caprice. She can outdo him in revelling
and debauchery. She can fool him to the top of his bent.
She can see through the petty tricks to which his vanity
tempts him, and turn the tables upon him by shrewder
tricks of the same kind which he does not suspect until he is
entrapped and laughed at,
CHARMIAN
*T was merry when
You wager'd on your angling, when your diver
Did hang a salt fish on his hook, which he
With fervency drew up.
CLEOPATRA
That time, — O times ! —
I laughed him out of patience; and that night
I laughed him into patience : and next morn,
Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed ;
Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst
I wore his sword Philippan.
The story of the fishing is told more at length by Plu-
tarch, who explains how Antony had provoked Cleopatra
to this practical joke, and it is, moreover^ so characteristic
of the old biographer that it may well be quoted in full :
a On a time he went to angle for fish, and, when he could
take none, he was as angry as could be, because Cleopatra
stood by. Wherefore he secretly commanded the fisher-
men that, when he cast in his line, they should straight
dive under the water, and put a fish on his hook which they
had taken before: and so snatched up his angling-rod,
and brought up a fish twice or thrice. Cleopatra found
that is, detected) it straight, yet she seemed not to see it,
but wondered at his excellent fishing; but, when she was
Antony and Cleopatra. c
XVni ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
alone by herself among her own people, she told them how
it was^ and bade them the next morning to be on the wa-
ter to see the fishing, A number of people came to the ha-
ven, and got into the fisher-boats to see this fishing, Anto-
nius then threw in his line, and Cleopatra straight
commanded one of her men to dive under water before
Antonius's men, and to put some old salt fish upon his
bait, like unto those that are brought out of the country of
Pont. When he had hung the fish on his hook, Antonius
thinking he had taken a fish indeed, snatched up his line
presently. Then they all felt a-laughing, »
Eut the tragedy follows hard upon the heels of the com-
edy. Octavius is at hand, and Antony must fight with
him — a by sea », says Cleopatra ; and « by sea, by
sea n, Antony echoes and insists, in the face of warnings
from his officers not to throw away « the absolute soldier'^
ship » he has by land and give himself up « merely to chance
and hazard ». The result confirms their worst forebodings.
Cleopatra's galleys take flight, and
The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard.
Leaving the Bght in height, flies after her
Fortune is afterward transiently retrieved on land; but
disaster and defeat, final and hopeless, soon follow. An-
tony ascribes this disgrace to treachery on the part of his
mistress and ally, and is ready to kill her for betraying
him to Octavius. She flees from his rage, and feigns her-
self dead, in the hope that it may turn his wrath to pity
and remorse :
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA XIX
Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself;
Say that the last I spoke was a Antony »,
And word it, prithee, piteously. Hence, Mariian,
And bring me how he takes my death.
It is the first of her wiles that fails by going too far. It
accomplishes its purpose only too well; for Antony, in the
agony and desperation of his grief, resolves to die also :
I will overtake thee, Cleopatra, and
Weep for my pardon.
He falls, « a Roman by a Roman valiantly vanquished »;
and she in turn determines to die after « the high Roman
fashion ». She is « studied in her death », as ever in her
life. She will make the fell destroyer « proud to take her »,
greeting him « like a queen » in her 9 best attires ». Nor
shall her beauty suffer stain or diminution as she goes
« again to meet Mark Antony » . The « pretty worm of
Nilus that kills and pains not » shall bring her liberty,
and, like a baby at her breast, suck the nurse asleep. While
she lapses to this welcome slumber, « as sweet as balm, as
soft as air^ as gentle », murmuring the name of « An-
tony », her crown is turned awry; but Charmian, who is
dying with her mistress, spends her last remnant of life
and strength in setting it right again, — so that, when
Cxsar comes too late to save her, he can only say :
She looks like sleep.
As she would catch another Antony
In her strong toil of grace.
The character of Cleopatra has been admirably summed
up by Henry Giles: « Wonderful she is in her grand and
XX ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
dazzling loveliness. Full of soul, full of power, and full of
poetry, she is the very majesty of voluptuousness; she could
beat Antony himself in the strength and endurance of ca-
rousal. Ambitious, yet sensuous; cunning, yet intellect-
ual; insidious, yet bold; high and daring in heraims, she
contrives to combine politics with pleasure. Keen in her
understanding, yet gorgeous in her imagination, she knew
• how to conceal a plan within a pageant, and her pageant-
ry was the pageantry of a goddess. Vehement as she was
subtle, her pleasures were as ocean-tides ; they surged up
from the dark depths of her impassioned soul. Daughter of
the Ptolemies, queen of olden and mystic Egypt, with the
rich genius of Greece and the hot blood of Africa, she was
at once poetess, sovereign and enchantress; grace, mingled
with force, concealed thegrossness of her excess; something
of the artistic entered into the wildest extravagance of her
luxuries; even in her vices she was brilliant and imperial.
It was meet that her lovers should be masters of the world;
with no lower suitors would imagination be content to mate
her. If she must bend her sceptre to the sword of Cstsar,
it was still right that he should bow his head to the royalty
of her beauty; his was the victory of force, hers of fasci-
nation; he was strong in his legions, she was strong in
herself; he conquered the world, and she conquered him.
The august and godlike Julius humbled himself before her.
The impetuous and magnificent Antony became a mere
child to her command. What measure shall we fin<ffor
that combination of womanly witchery and womanty ge-
nius, the result of which we observe in the subjugation of
two such men as haughty Julius and inconstant Antony?
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA XXI
It required the mind of Shakespeare properly to conceive it,
and by Shakespeare only it has sufficiency of expression. »
And we may note moreover, with Mrs, Jameson, that,
while tt he alone has dared to exhibit the Egyptian queen
with all her greatness and all her littleness », he has yet
« preserved the dramatic propriety and poetical coloring
of the character, and awakened our pity for fallen grand-
eur, without once beguiling us into sympathy with
guilt or error ».
Of the other characters in the play Enobarbus is perhaps
the most interesting, both personally and dramatically.
He is a genuine soldier of the old Roman type, a plain^
blunt man, who, as Hudson has pointed out, is made use
of by Shakespeare to « serve the office of a chorus in the
play, to interpret between the author and his audience ».
He is thus « at once a character and a commentary ».
Gervinus pays a tribute to his dry humor, but shows him-
self amusingly blind to a conspicuous example of this hu-
mor, — where, upon Cleopatra's declaring to Thy reus that
her « honor was not yielded, but conquered merely » — a
falsehood as brazen as it was transparent — Enobarbus
says aside : « To be sure of that, I will ask Antony. »
One would suppose that the irony of this was as obvious
as the mendacity that provokes it; but the German critic
takes it in all seriousness. According to him, what Cleo-
pa^ says to Thyreus seems to Enobarbus « so earnest
an^rue that he questions his lord about it » /
T/iV death of Enobarbus from shame and remorse —
he does not kill himself — proves the innate nobility of
the man. Indeed, as Paul Stapfer observes, « his figure
XXII ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
is by far the noblest in the tragedy among those that have
more than a shadowy existence; for Eros and Octavia,
two other beautiful apparitions, only pass and disappear u.
What is the « moral » of the great tragedy ? // is that
of the dramatist's own entanglement with the lesser Cleo^
patra of the Sonnets, which escaped being a « soul's trag-
edy » only because Shakespeare was not a lesser Antony;
and it is written in the 1 29//1 Sonnet :
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjur'd, murtherous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and prov'd, a very woe ;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
Shakespeare descended into that hell, but made his way
out again, wiser and stronger for the experience; Antony
sank into its black depths, and was seen no more.
Antony and Cleopatra
DRAMATIS PERSONy€
Triumvirs.
\
Friends to Antony.
Friends to Caesar.
Mark Antony,
octavius c^sar,
M. i£MiLius Lepidus,
SeXTUS POMPEIUS.
DoMiTius Enobarbus,
Ventidius,
Eros,
Scar us,
Dercetas,
Demetrius,
Philo,
Mecenas,
ACRIPPA,
dolabella,
Proculeius,
Thyreus,
Gallus,
Menas,
Menecrates,
Varrius,
Taurus, lieutenant-general to Caesar.
Canidius, lieutenant-general to Antony.
SiLius, an officer in Ventidius's army.
Euphronius, an ambassador from Antony to Caesar.
Alexas, \
Mardian, a Eunuch, / A.»^«j«„,e ^^ m
^ > Attendants on Cleopatra.
Sbleucus, \ '^
Diomedes, /
A Soothsayer.
A Clown.
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
Octavia, sister to Caesar and wife to Antony.
. ' I Attendants on Cleopatra.
Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.
Friends to Pompey.
SccNi : In several parts of the Roman empire,
i
ACT I
SCENE I
AUXANDRIA. — A ROOM IN ClEOPATKA's TALACE
E'Utr DEMETRIUS and PHILO.
PHILO
Nay, but this dotage of our general's
O'erflows the measure : those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of the war
Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn.
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front : his captain's heart.
Which in the scuffles of great tights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneags all temper.
Anion) and Cltopalra.
2 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy's lust.
Flourish.
Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies, the Train
with Eunuchs fanning her.
Look, where they come :
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transformed
Into a strumpet's Fool : behold and see.
CLEOPATRA
If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
ANTONY
There 's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
CLEOPATRA
I '11 set a bourn how far to be belov'd.
ANTONY
Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
Enter an ATTENDANT.
ATTENDANT
News, my good lord, from Rome.
ANTONY
Grates me: the sum.
CLEOPATRA
Nay, hear them, Antony :
Fulvia perchance is angry ; or, who knows
If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, Do this, or this ;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that ;
ACT I, SCENE I 3
Perform 't, or else we damn thee.
ANTONY
How, my love !
CLEOPATRA
Perchance! nay, and most like :
You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Caesar ; therefore hear it, Antony.
Where 's Fulvia's process ? Caesar's I would say? both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blushest, Antony ; and that blood of thine
Is Caesar's homager : else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongu'd Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
ANTONY
Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the rang'd empire fall ! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay : our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man : the nobleness of life
Is to do thus ; when such a mutual pair
EmbraciDg.
And such a twain can do 't, in which I bind.
On pain of punishment, the world to wit
We stand up peerless.
CLEOPATRA
Excellent falsehood !
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I '11 seem the fool I am not; Antony
Will be himself.
ANTONY
But stirr'd by Cleopatra.
Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
4 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Let 's not confound the time with conference harsh :
There 's not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure now. What sport to-night?
CLEOPATRA
Hear the ambassadors.
ANTONY
Fie, wrangling queen !
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep ; whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd!
No messenger, but thine; and all alone
To-night we Ml wander through the streets and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen ;
Last night you did desire it : speak not to us.
Exeunt Antony and Cleopatra with their train.
DEMETRIUS
Is Caesar with Antonius prizM so slight ?
PHILO
Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
He comes too short of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.
DEMETRIUS
I am full sorry
That he approves the common liar, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome : but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!
Exeunt.
ACT 1, SCENE II 5
SCENE II
The Same. — Another Room
£nf^r CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a SOOTHSAYER.
CHARMIAN
Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most any thing Alexas,
almost most absolute Alexas, where 's the soothsayer
that you prais'd so to th' Queen? O, that I knew this
husband, which, you say, must charge his horns with
garlands!
ALEXAS
Soothsayer !
soothsayer
Your will?
CHARMIAN
Is this the man ? — Is 't you, sir, that know things?
SOOTHSAYER
In nature's infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.
ALEXAS
Show him your hand.
EnUr ENOBARBUS.
enobarbus
Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough
Cleopatra's health to drink.
CHARMIAN
Good sir, give me good fortune.
6 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
SOOTHSAYER
I make not, but foresee.
CHARMIAN
Pray, then, foresee me one.
SOOTHSAYER
You shall be yet far fairer than you are.
CHARMIAN
He means in flesh.
IRAS
No, you shall paint when you are old.
CHARMIAN
Wrinkles forbid !
ALEXAS
Vex not his prescience ; be attentive.
CHARMIAN
Hush!
SOOTHSAYER
You shall be more beloving than beloved.
CHARMIAN
I had rather heat my liver with drinking.
ALEXAS
Nay, hear him.
CHARMIAN
Good now, some excellent fortune ! Let me be mar-
ried to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all :
let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry
may do homage : find me to marry me with Octavius
Caesar, and companion me with my mistress.
SOOTHSAYER
You shall outlive the lady whom you serve.
ACT /, SCENE II 7
CHARMIAN
O excellent! I love long life better than figs.
SOOTHSAYER
You have seen and proved a fairer former fortune
Than that which is to approach.
CHARMIAN
Then belike my children shall have no names : pri-
thee, how many boys and wenches must I have?
SOOTHSAYER
If every of your wishes had a womb,
And fertile every wish, a million.
CHARMIAN
Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.
ALEXAS
You think none but your sheets are privy to your
wishes.
CHARMIAN
Nay, come, tell Iras hers.
ALEXAS
We '11 know all our fortunes.
ENOBARBUS
Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be
— drunk to bed.
IRAS
There 's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else.
CHARMIAN
E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine.
IRAS
Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay.
8 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CHARMIAN
Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostica-
tion, 1 cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but a
work-a-day fortune,
SOOTHSA'YER
Your fortunes are alike. ■
IRAS
But how, but howP give me particulars.
SOOTHSAYER
I have said.
IRAS
Am I not an inch of fortune better than she r
CHARMIAN
Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than
I , where would you choose it ?
IRAS
Not in my husband's nose.
CHARMIAN
Our worserthoughtsheavensmend! Alexas, — come,
his fortune,his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that
cannot go, sweet Isis, I beseech thee I and let her die
too, and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse,
till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave,
fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear me this prayer,
though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good
Isis, 1 beseech thee!
IIt.AS
Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people!
for, as it is a heart-breaking to see a handsome man
ACT /, SCENE II 9
loose-wiv'd, so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul
knave uncuckolded : therefore, dear I sis, keep decorum,
and fortune him accordingly!
CHARMIAN
Amen.
ALEXAS
Lo, now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuck-
old, they would make themselves whores, but they 'Id
do't!
ENOBARBUS
Hush! here comes Antony.
CHARMIAN
Not he; the Queen.
Enttr CLEOPATRA.
CLEOPATRA
Saw you my lord ?
ENOBARBUS
No, lady.
CLEOPATRA
Was he not here ?
CHARMIAN .
No, madam.
CLEOPATRA
He was disposed to mirth ; but on the sudden
A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus!
ENOBARBUS
Madam ?
Antony and Cleopatra. t
lo ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CLEOPATRA
Seek him, and bring him hither. Where 's Alexas?
ALEXAS
Here, at your service. My lord approaches.
CLEOPATRA
We will not look upon him : go with us.
Exeunt.
£n/fr ANTONY with a MESSENGER and ATTENDANTS.
MESSENGER
Fulvia thy wife first came into the field.
ANTONY
Against my brother Lucius?
MESSENGER
Ay :
But soon that war had end, and the time 's state
Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Caesar;
Whose better issue in the war, from Italy,
Upon the first encounter, drave them.
ANTONY
Well, what worst?
MESSENGER
The nature of bad news infects the teller.
ANTONY
When it concerns the fool or coward. On :
Things that are past are done with me. 'T is thus ;
Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death,
I hear him as he flatterM.
MESSENGER
Labienus —
ACT I, SCENE II II
This is stiff news — hath, with his Parthian force,
Extended Asia from Euphrates ;
His conquering banner shook from Syria
To Lydia and to Ionia ;
Whilst —
ANTONY
Antony, thou wouldst say, —
MESSENGER
O, my lord !
ANTONY
Speak to me home, mince not the general tongue :
Name Cleopatra as she is calFd in Rome;
Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase; and taunt my faults
With such full license as both truth and malice
Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds,
When our quick minds lie still; and our ills told us
Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile.
MESSENGER
At your noble pleasure.
Exit.
ANTONY
From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there !
FIRST ATTENDANT
The man from Sicyon, — is there such an one?
SECOND ATTENDANT
He stays upon your will.
ANTONY
Let him appear.
These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,
Or lose myself in dotage.
13 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Enter another MESSENGER.
What are you ?
SECOND MESSENGER
Fulvia thy wife is dead.
ANTONY
Where died she ?
SECOND MESSENGER
In Sicyon :
Her length of sickness, with what else more serious
Importeth thee to know, this bears.
Gives a fetter
ANTONY
Forbear me.
Exit sec. messenger
There *s a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it :
What our contempt doth often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again ; the present pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become
The opposite of itself : she 's good, being gone;
The hand could pluck her back that shov'd her on.
I must from this enchanting queen break off :
Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know,
My idleness doth hatch. How now ! Enobarbus!
Ke-enter ENOBARBUS.
ENOBARBUS
What 'syour pleasure, sir?
ANTONY
I must with haste from hence.
ACT I, SCENE II i3
ENOBARBUS
Why, then, we kill all our women : we see how
mortal an unkindness is to them ; if they suffer our
departure, death 's the word.
ANTONY
I must be gone.
ENOBARBUS
Under a compelling occasion, let women die : it
were pity to cast them away for nothing ; though, be-
tween them and a great cause, they should be esteemed
nothing. Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this,
dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon
far poorer moment : I do think there is mettle in death,
which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such
a celerity in dying.
ANTONY
She is cunning past man's thought.
ENOBARBUS
Alack, sir, no ; her passions are made of nothing
but the finest part of pure love : we cannot call her
winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater
storms and tempests than almanacs can report : this
cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower
of rain as well as Jove.
ANTONY
Would I had never seen her !
ENOBARBUS
O, sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of
work; which not to have been blest withal would have
discredited your travel.
14 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
ANTONY
Fulvia is dead.
Sir?
Fulvia is dead.
Fulvia !
Dead.
ENOBARBUS
ANTONY
ENOBARBUS
ANTONY
ENOBARBUS
Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When
it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from
him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comfort-
ing therein, that when old robes are worn out, there
are members to make new. If there were no more
women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the
case to be lamented : this grief is crown'd with conso-
lation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat :
and indeed the tears live in an onion that should water
this sorrow.
ANTONY
The business she hath broached in the state
Cannot endure my absence.
ENOBARBUS
And the business you have broach'd here cannot be
without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which
wholly depends on your abode.
ANTONY
No more light answers. Let our officers
ACT I, SCENE 11 i5
Have notice what we purpose. I shall break
The cause of our expedience to the Queen,
And get her leave to part. For not alone
The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches,
Do strongly speak to us ; but the letters too
Of many our contriving friends in Rome
Petition us at home : Sextus Pompeius
Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands
The empire of the sea : our slippery people.
Whose love is never link'd to the deserver
Till his deserts are past, begin to throw
Pompey the Great and all his dignities
Upon his son ; who, high in name and power.
Higher than both in blood and life, stands up
For the main soldier : whose quality, going on.
The sides o' th' world may danger : much is breeding.
Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life.
And not a serpent's poison. Say, our pleasure.
To such whose place is under us, requires
Our quick remove from hence.
ENOBARBUS
I shall do 't.
Exeunt
SCENE III
The same. — Another room
EnUr CLEOPATRA, CHARM IAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS.
CLEOPATRA
Where is he ?
i6 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CHARMIAN
I did not see him since.
CLEOPATRA
See where he is, who 's with him, what he does :
I did not send you : if you find him sad,
Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report
That I am sudden sick : quick, and return.
Exit Alexas.
CHARMIAN
Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly.
You do not hold the method to enforce
The like from him.
CLEOPATRA
What should I do, I do not?
CHARMIAN
In each thing give him way, cross him in nothing.
CLEOPATRA
Thou teachest like a fool : the way to lose him.
CHARMIAN
Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear :
In time we hate that which we often fear.
But here comes Antony.
Enter ANTONY.
CLEOPATRA
I am sick and sullen.
ANTONY
I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose, —
CLEOPATRA
Help me away, dear Charmian ; I shall fall :
ACT /, SCENE in 17
It cannot be thus long, the sides of nature
Will not sustain it.
ANTONY
Now, my dearest queen, —
CLEOPATRA
Pray you, stand farther from me.
ANTONY
What 's the matter?
CLEOPATRA
I know, by that same eye, there 's some good news.
What says the married woman ? You may go :
Would she had never given you leave to come !
Let her not say 't is I that keep you here :
I have no power upon you ; hers you are.
ANTONY
The gods best know, —
CLEOPATRA
O, never was there queen
So mightily betray'd ! yet at the first
I saw the treasons planted.
ANTONY
Cleopatra, —
CLEOPATRA
Why should I think you can be mine and true.
Though you in swearing shake the throned gods.
Who have been false to Fulvia ? Riotous madness.
To be entangled with those mouth-made vows,
Which break themselves in swearing ! y
ANTONY
Most sweet queen, —
Antony and Cleopatra. 3
i8 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CLEOPATRA
Nay, pray you, seek no colour for your going.
But bid farewell, and go : when you sued staying,
Then was the time for words : no going then ;
Eternity was in our lips and eyes.
Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor.
But was a race of heaven : they are so still,
Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world.
Art turn'd the greatest liar.
ANTONY
How now, lady !
CLEOPATRA
I would I had thy inches; thou shouldst know
There were a heart in Egypt.
ANTONY
Hear me, queen :
The strong necessity of time conjinands
Our services awhile ;, but my full heart
Remains in use with you. Our Italy
Shines o'er with civil swords : Sextus Pompeius
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome :
Equality of two domestic powers
Breed scrupulous faction ; the hated, grown to strength,
Are newly grown to love : the condemn'd Pompey,
Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace
Into ihe hearts of such as have not thrived
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten ;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
By any desperate change : my more particular,
ACT I, SCENE III 19
And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is Fulvia's death.
CLEOPATRA
Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
It does from childishness : can Fulvia die?
ANTONY
She 's dead, my queen :
Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read
The garboils she awak'd; at the last, best :
See when and where she died.
CLEOPATRA
O most false love !
Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see.
In Fulvia's death, how mine receivM shall be.
ANTONY
Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease.
As you shall give the advice. By the fire
That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence
Thy soldier, servant; making peace or war
As thou affect'st.
CLEOPATRA
Cut my lace, Charmian, come;
But let it be : I am quickly ill, and well.
So Antony loves.
ANTONY
My precious queen, forbear;
And give true evidence to his love, which stands
An honourable trial.
20 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CLEOPATRA
So Fulvia told me.
I prithee, turn aside and weep for her;
Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears
Belong to Egypt : good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling; and let it look
Like perfect honour.
ANTONY
You '11 heat my blood : no more.
CLEOPATRA
You can do better yet ; but this is meetly.
ANTONY
Now, by my sword, —
CLEOPATRA
And target. Still he mends;
But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
How this Herculean Roman does become
The carriage of his chafe.
ANTONY
I '11 leave you, lady.
CLEOPATRA
Courteous lord, one word.
Sir, you and I must part, but that 's not it ;
Sir, you and I have lov'd, but there 's not it ;
That you know well : something it is I would, —
O, my oblivion is a very Antony,
And I am all forgotten.
ANTONY
But that your royalty
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ACT I, SCENE 111 21
Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
For idleness itself.
CLEOPATRA
'T is sweating labour
To bear such idleness so near the heart
As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me;
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not
Eye well to you : your honour calls you hence;
Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly,
And all the gods go with you! upon your sword
Sit laurePd victory ! and smooth success
Be strew'd before your feet !
ANTONY
Let us go. Come;
Our separation so abides, and flies.
That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me,
And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.
Away !
Exeunt.
SCENE IV
Rome. — CiESAR*s house
Enter OCTAVIUS CiESAR, reading a UtUr,
LEPIDUS, and their TRAIN
C^SAR
You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know.
It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate
Our great competitor : from Alexandria
22 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
This is the news : he fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revel ; is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra ; nor the queen of Ptolemy
More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or
Vouchsafd to think he had partners : you shall find there
A man who is the abstract of all faults
That all men follow.
LEPIDUS
I must not think there are
Evils enow to darken all his goodness :
His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary.
Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change,
Than what he chooses.
C^SAR
You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;
To give a kingdom for a mirth ; to sit
And keep the turn of tippling with a slave ;
To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
With knaves that smell of sweat : say this becomes him , —
As his composure must be rare indeed
Whom these things cannot blemish, — yet must Antony
No way excuse his soils, when we do bear
So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness.
Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones.
Call on him for 't : but to confound such time.
That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud
As his own state and ours, — 't is to be chid
ACT I, SCENE IV 23
As we rate boys, who, being mature in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgement.
Enter a MESSENGER
LEPIDUS
Here 's more news.
MESSENGER
Thy biddings have been done ; and every hour.
Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report
How 't is abroad. Pompey is strong at sea ;
And it appears he is belov'd of those
That only have fear'd Caesar : to the ports
The discontents repair, and men's reports
Give him much wrong'd.
C^SAR
I should have known no less.
It hath been taught us from the primal state.
That he which is was wish'd until he were ;
And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love.
Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body.
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream.
Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide.
To rot itself with motion.
MESSENGER
Caesar, I bring thee word,
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates.
Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound
With keels of every kind : many hot inroads
24 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
They make in Italy; the borders maritime
Lack blood to think on 't, and flush youth revolt:
No vessel can peep forth, but 't is as soon
Taken as seen ; for Pompey's name strikes more
Than could his war resisted.
C^SAR
Antony,
Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once
Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st
Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
Did famine follow ; whom thou fought'st against.
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer : thou didst drink
The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle
Which beasts would cough at : thy palate then did deign
The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;
Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed'st ; on the Alps
It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh.
Which some did die to look on : and all this —
It wounds thine honour that I speak it now —
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
So much as lankM not.
LEPIDUS
T is pity of him.
C^SAR
Let his shames quickly
Drive him to Rome : 't is time we twain
Did show ourselves i' ih' field; and to that end
ACT I, SCENE IV 25
Assemble we immediate council : Pompey
Thrives in our idleness.
LEPIDUS
To-morrow, Caesar,
I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what by sea and land I can be able
To front this present time.
CitSAR
Till which encounter,
It is my business too. Farewell.
LEPIDUS
Farewell, my lord : what you shall know meantime
Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
To let me be partaker.
C^SAR
Doubt not, sir;
I knew it for my bond.
Exeunt.
SCENE V
Alexandria. — Cleopatra's palace
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS
and MARDIAN
CLEOPATRA
Charmian !
CHARMIAN
Madam ?
Antony and Cleopatra.
26 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CLEOPATRA
Ha, ha!
Give me to drink mandragora.
CHARMIAN
Why, madam ?
CLEOPATRA
That I might sleep out this great gap of lime
My Antony is away.
CHARMIAN
You think of him too much.
CLEOPATRA
O, 't is treason !
CHARMIAN
Madam, I trust, not so.
CLEOPATRA
Thou, eunuch Mardian !
MARDIAN
What 's your highness' pleasure ?
CLEOPATRA
Not now to hear thee sing ; I take no pleasure
In aught an eunuch has : 't is well for thee,
That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts
May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou aflfections?
MARDIAN
Yes, gracious madam.
CLEOPATRA
Indeed!
MARDIAN
Not in deed, madam ; for I can do nothing
But what indeed is honest to be done :
ACT 1, SCENE V 77
Yet have I fierce affections, and think
What Venus did with Mars.
CLEOPATRA
O Charmian,
Where think^st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?
Or does he walk ? or is he on his horse ?
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
Do bravely, horse ! for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st ?
The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet of men. He 's speaking now,
Or murmuring « Where 's my serpent of old Nile? »
For so he calls me : now I feed- myself
With most delicious poison. Think on me,
That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black,
And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar,
When thou wast here above the ground, I was
A morsel for a monarch : and great Pompey
Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow ;
There would he anchor his aspect and die
With looking on his life.
Enter A LEX AS
ALEXAS
Sovereign of Egypt, hail!
CLEOPATRA
How much unlike art thou Mark Antony !
Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.
How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?
28 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
ALEXAS
Last thing he did, dear queen,
He kiss'd, — the last of many doubled kisses, —
This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.
CLEOPATRA
Mine ear must pluck it thence.
ALEXAS
Good friend, » quoth he,
c« Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,
To mend the petty present, I will piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms; all the east.
Say thou, shall call her mistress. » So he nodded.
And soberly did mount an arm-girt steed.
Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke
Was beastly dumb'd by him.
CLEOPATRA
What, was he sad or merry ?
ALEXAS
Like to the time o' the year between the extremes
Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.
CLEOPATRA
O well-divided disposition ! Note him.
Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him:
He was not sad, for he would shine on those
That make their looks by his; he was not merry.
Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay
In Egypt with his joy; but between both :
O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad or merry.
ACT I, SCENE V
The violence of either thee becomes,
So does it no man else. Met'st thou my posts?
ALEXAS
Ay, madam, twenty several messengers :
Why do you send so thick?
CLEOPATRA
Who 's born that day
When I forget to send to Antony,
Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian.
Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian,
Ever love Caesar so ?
CHARMIAN
O that brave Caesar!
CLEOPATRA
Be chok'd with such another emphasis!
Say, the brave Antony.
CHARMIAN
The valiant Caesar !
CLEOPATRA
By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth.
If thou with Caesar paragon again
My man of men.
CHARMIAN
By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you.
CLEOPATRA
My salad days.
When I was green in judgement : cold in blood,
3o ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
To say as 1 said then! But, come, away;
Get me ink and paper:
He shall have every day a several greeting,
Or I 'II unpeople Egypt.
^^^^
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ACT II
SCENE f
Meuina. — Pommt's house
EnKr POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENA5
m warlih manntr
POMPEY
ir the great gods be just, they shall assist
The deeds of justest men.
MENECKATES
Know, worthy Pompey,
That what they do delay, they not deny.
POMPEY
Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays '
32 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
The thing we sue for.
MENECRATES
We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good : so find we profit
By losing of our prayers.
POMPEY
I shall do well :
The people love me, and the sea is mine;
My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope
Says it will come to the full. Mark Antony
In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make
No wars without doors : Caesar gets money where
He loses hearts : Lepidus flatters both.
Of both is flatter'd ; but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him.
MENAS
Caesar and Lepidus
Are in the field : a mighty strength they carry.
POMPEY
Where have you this? 't is false.
MENAS
From Silvius, sir.
POMPEY
He dreams : I know they are in Rome together.
Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love,
Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd lip!
Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both !
Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts,
Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks
ACT 11, SCENE I 33
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite ;
That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour
Even till a Lethe'd dulness !
EnUr VARRIUS.
How now, Varrius!
VARRIUS
This is most certain that I shall deliver :
Mark Antony is every hour in Rome
Expected : since he went from Egypt 't is
A space for further travel.
POMPEY
I could have given less matter
A better ear. Menas, I did not think
This amorous surfeiter would have donn'd his helm
For such a petty war : his soldiership
Is twice the other twain : but let us rear
The higher our opinion, that our stirring
Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck
The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony.
MENAS
I cannot hope
Caesar and Antony shall well greet together :
His wife that 's dead did trespasses to Caesar;
His brother warr'd upon him ; although, I think,
Not mov'd by Antony.
POMPEY
I know not, Menas,
How lesser enmities may give way to greater.
Were 't not that we stand up against them all,
Antony and Cleopatra. 5
34 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
'T were pregnant they should square between themselves;
For they have entertained cause enough
To draw their swords : but how the fear of us
May cement their divisions and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know.
Be 't as our gods will have 't ! It only stands
Our lives upon to use our strongest hands.
Come, Mena?. Exeum.
SCENE II
Rome. — A Room in the house of Lepidus
Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS.
LEPIDUS
Good Enobarbus, *t is a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.
enobarbus
I shall entreat him
To answer like himself : if Caesar move him.
Let Antony look over Caesar's head
And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,
I would not shave 't to-day.
LEPIDUS
T is not a time
For private stomaching.
ENOBARBUS
Every tinie
ACT //, SCENE II 35
Serves for the matter that is then born in 't.
LEPIDUS
But small to greater matters must give way.
ENOBARBUS
Not if the small come first.
LEPIDUS
Your speech is passion :
But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes
The noble Antony.
Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS.
ENOBARBUS
And yonder, Caesar.
Enter Ci€SAR, MECiENAS and AGRIPPA.
ANTONY
If we compose well here, to Parthia :
Hark, Ventidius.
Cits A R
I do not know,
Mecaenas ; ask Agrippa.
LEPIDUS
Noble friends.
That which combined us was most great, and let not
A leaner action rend us. What 's amiss.
May it be gently heard : when we debate
Our trivial difference loud, we do commit
Murther in healing wounds : then, noble partners.
The rather, for I earnestly beseech.
36 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms.
Nor curstness grow to the matter.
ANTONY
'T is spoken well.
Were we before our armies, and to fight,
I should do thus.
Flourish.
CiESAR
Welcome to Rome.
ANTONY
Thank you.
CiESAR
Sit.
ANTONY
Sit, sir.
CiESAR
Nay, then.
ANTONY
I learn, you take things ill which are not so.
Or being, concern you not.
CiESAR
I must be laugh'd at ,
If, or for nothing or a little, I
Should say myself offended, and with you
Chiefly i' th' world ; more laugh'd at, that I should
Once name you derogately, when to sound your name
It not concern'd me.
ANTONY
My being in Egypt, Caesar,
What was 't to you ?
ACT II, SCENE II 37
CiESAR
No more than my residing here at Rome
Might be to you in Egypt : yet, if you there
Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
Might be my question.
ANTONY
How intend you, practis'd?
CiESAR
You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent
By what did here befal me. Your wife and brother
Made wars upon me ; and their contestation
Was theme for you, you were the word of war.
ANTONY
You do mistake your business; my brother never
Did urge me in his act : I did inquire it;
And have my learning from some true reports,
That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
Discredit my authority with yours ;
And make the wars alike against my stomach.
Having alike your cause? Of this my letters
Before did satisfy you. If you 'II patch a quarrel.
As matter whole you have not to make it with.
It must not be with this.
CiESAR
You praise yourself
By laying defects of judgement to me; but
You patch'd up your excuses.
ANTONY
Not so, not so :
I know you could not lack, I am certain on 't.
38 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
Wery necessity of this thought, that 1,
Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
Could not with graceful ejes attend those wars
Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in such another :
The third o' the world is yours; which with a snaffle
You may pace easy, but not such a wife.
ENOBARBUS
Would we had all such wives, that the men might
go to wars with the women !
ANTONY
So much uncurbable her garboils, Cssar,
Made out of her impatience, which not wanted
Shrewdness of policy too, I grieving grant
Did you too much disquiet : for that you must
But say, I could not help it.
C£SAIt
1 wrote to you
When rioting in Alexandria; you
Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
Did gibe my missive out of audience.
ANTONY
Sir,
He fell upon me ere admitted : then
Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want
Of what I was i* th' morning : but next day
I told him of myself; which was as much
As to have ask'd him pardon. Let this fellow
Be nothing of our strife ; if we contend,
Out of our question wipe him.
ACT II, SCENE 11 3
CiESAR
You have broken
The article of your oath ; which you shall never
Have tongue to charge me with.
LtPIDUS
Soft, Caesar!
ANTONY
No,
Lepidus, let him speak :
The honour is sacred which he talks on now.
Supposing that I lack'd it. But, on, Caesar;
The article of my oath.
«
CiESAR
To lend me arms and aid when I required them ;
The which you both denied.
ANTONY
Neglected, rather;
And then when poisoned hours had bound me up
From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may,
I Ml play the penitent to you : but mine honesty
Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
Work without it. Truth is, that Fulvia,
To have me out of Egypt, made wars here ;
For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
So far ask pardon as befits mine honour
To stoop in such a case.
LEPIDUS
'T is noble spoken.
MECiENAS
If it might please you, to enforce no further
^o ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
The griefs between ye : to forget them quite
Were to remember that the present need
Speaks to atone you.
LEPIDUS
Worthily spoken, Mecsenas.
ENOBARBUS
Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant,
you may, when you hear no more words of Pompej,
return it again :you shall have time to wrangle in when
you have nothing else to do.
ANTONY
Thou art a soldier only : speak no more.
ENOBARBUS
That truth should be silent 1 had almost forgot.
ANTONY
You wrong this presence ; therefore speak no more.
ENOBARBUS
Go to, then ; your considerate stone.
C«SAR
I do not much dislike the matter, but
The manner of his speech ; for 't cannot be
We shall remain in friendship, our conditions
So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew
What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge
O' th' world 1 would pursue it.
ACRtPPA
Give me leave, Caesar, —
C£SAR
Speak, Agrippa.
ACT //, SCENE n 41
AGRIPPA
Thou hast a sister by the mother's side,
Admir'd Octavia : great Mark Antony
Is now a widower.
CiESAR
Say not so, Agrippa :
If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
Were well deserved of rashness.
ANTONY
I am not married, Caesar : let me hear
Agrippa further speak.
AGRIPPA
To hold you in perpetual amity,
To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unslipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife ; whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men ;
Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealousies, which now seem great.
And all great fears, which now import their dangers.
Would then be nothing : truths would be tales,
Where now half tales be truths : her love to both
Would, each to other and all loves to both.
Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke ;
For 't is a studied, not a present thought.
By duty ruminated.
ANTONY
Will Caesar speak?
Antony and CUopatra. 6
42 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CiESAR
Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd
With what is spoke already.
ANTONY
What power is in Agrippa,
If I would say, « Agrippa, be it so »>,
To make this good ?
CiESAR
The power of Caesar, and
His power unto Octavia.
ANTONY
May I never
To this good purpose, that so fairly shows.
Dream ofimpediment! Let me have thy hand :
Further this act of grace ; and from this hour
The heart of brothers govern in our loves
And sway our great designs !
C^SAR
There is my hand.
A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother
Did ever love so dearly : let her live
To join our kingdoms and our hearts; and never
Fly off our loves again !
LEPIDUS
Happily, amen!
ANTONY
I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pompey ;
For he hath laid strange courtesies and great
Of late upon me : I must thank him only,
Lest my remembrance suffer ill report;
ACT II, SCENE II 43
At heel of ihat, defy him.
LEPIDUS
Time calls upon 's:
Of us must 'Pompey presently be sought,
Or else he seeks out us.
ANTONY
Where lies he?
CiESAR
About the mount Misenum.
ANTONY
What is his strength by land?
CiCSAR
Great and increasing : but by sea
He is an absolute master.
ANTONY
So is the fame.
Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it :
Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we
The business we have talk'd of.
CiESAR
With most gladness;
And do invite you to my sister's view,
' Whither straight I '11 lead you.
ANTONY
Let us, Lepidus,
Not lack your company.
LEPIDUS
Noble Antony,
Not sickness should detain me.
Flourish. Exeunt Cxsar, Antony and Lepidus.
44 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
MECiENAS
Welcome from Egypt, sir.
ENOBARBUS
Half the heart of Csesar, worthy Mecsenas ! My
honourable friend, Agrippal
AGRIPPA
Good Enobarbus!
MEC^NAS
We have cause to be glad that matters are so well
digested. You stayed well by *t in Egypt.
ENOBARBUS
Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and
made the night light with drinking.
MECiENAS
Eight wild-boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and
but twelve persons there ; is this true ?
ENOBARBUS
This was but as a fly by an eagle : we had much
more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deser-
ved noting.
MECiENAS
She 's a most triumphant lady, if report be square
to her.
ENOBARBUS
When she first met Mark Antony, she purs'd up his
heart, upon the river of Cydnus.
AGRIPPA
There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devis'd
well for her.
ACT II, SCENE I! 46
ENOBARBUS
I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnishM throne,
Burn'd on the water : the poop was beaten gold ;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them ; the oars were silver.
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster.
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description : she did lie
In her pavilion — cloth-of-gold of tissue —
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature : on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool.
And what they undid did.
AGRIPPA
O, rare for Antony !
ENOBARBUS
Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i' th' eyes,
And made their bends adornings : at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers : the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands.
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthroned i' th' market-place, did sit alone,
46 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Whistling to th' air; which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too
And made a gap in nature.
AGRIPPA
Rare Egyptian !
ENOBARBUS
Upon her landing, Antony sent to her.
Invited her to sapper : she replied.
It should be better he became her guest;
Which she entreated : our courteous Antony,
Whom ne'er the word of « No » woman heard speak.
Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast,
And for his ordinary pays his heart
For what his eyes eat only.
AGRIPPA
Royal wench !
She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed :
He plough'd her, and she cropp'd.
ENOBARBUS
I saw her once
Hop forty paces through the public street;
And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted.
That she did make defect perfection.
And, breathless, power breathe forth.
MECiENAS
Now Antony must leave her utterly.
ENOBARBUS
Never; he will not:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety : other women cloy
ACT II, SCENE U 47
The appetites they feed : but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies : for vilest things
Become themselves in her ; that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.
MECiENAS
If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle
The heart of Antony, Octavia is
A blessed lottery to him.
AGRIPPA
Let us go.
Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
Whilst you abide here.
ENOBARBUS
Humbly, sir, I thank you.
Exeunt.
SCENE HI
The SAME. — C^SAR s house
Enter ANTONY, CiESAR, OCTAVIA between them,
and ATTENDANTS.
ANTONY
The world and my great office will sometimes
Divide me from your bosom.
OCTAVIA
All which time
Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers
To them for you.
48 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
ANTONY
Good night, sir. My Octavia,
Read not my blemishes in the world's report :
I have not kept my square; but that to come
Shall all be done by the rule. Good night, dear lady.
Good night, sir.
CiESAR
Good night.
Exeunt C«sar and Octavia.
Enter SOOTHSAYER.
ANTONY
Now, sirrah ; you do wish yourself in Egypt?
SOOTHSAYER
Would I had never come from thence, nor you
Thither! .
ANTONY
If you can, your reason?
SOOTHSAYER
I see it in
My motion, have it not in my tongue : but yet
Hie you to Egypt again.
ANTONY
Say to me.
Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar's or mine ?
SOOTHSAYER
Caesar's.
Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side :
Thy demon, that 's thy spirit which keeps thee, is
Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable,
ACT //, SCENE III 49
Where Caesar's is not; but, near him, thy angel
Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd : therefore
Make space between you.
ANTONY
Speak this no more.
SOOTHSAYER
To none but thee; no more, but when to thee.
If thou dost play with him at any game,
Thou art sure to lose; and, of that natural luck,
He beats thee 'gainst the odds : thy lustre thickens,
When he shines by : I say again, thy spirit
Is all afraid to govern thee near him ;
But, he away, 't is noble.
ANTONY
Get thee gone :
Say to Ventidius I would speak with him:
Exit Soothsayer.
He shall to Parthia. Be it art or hap,
He hath spoken true : the very dice obey him ;
And in our sports my better cunning faints
Under his chance : if we draw lots, he speeds;
His cocks do win the battle still of mine.
When it is all to nought; and his quails ever
Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds. I will to Egypt :
And though I make this marriage for my peace,
r th' east my pleasure lies.
Enter VENTIDIUS.
O, come, Ventidius,
You must to Parthia : your commission 's ready;
Antony and Cleopatra. j
5o ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Follow me, and receive 't.
Eieunt.
SCENE IV
The same. — A street
Enter LEPIDUS, MEC>ENAS and AGRIPPA.
LEPIDUS
Trouble yourselves no further : pray you, hasten
Your generals after.
AGRIPPA
Sir, Mark Antony
Will e'en but kiss Octavia, and we '11 follow.
LEPIDUS
Till I shall see you in your soldier's dress.
Which will become you both, farewell.
MECiENAS
We shall.
As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount
Before you, Lepidus.
LEPIDUS
Your way is shorter ;
My purposes do draw me much about :
You '11 win two days upon me.
MECiENAS, AGRIPPA
Sir, good success !
LEPIDUS
Farewell.
ElCUQt.
ACT II, SCENE V 5i
SCENE V
Alexandria. — Cleopatra's palace
EnUr CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS and ALEXAS.
CLEOPATRA
Give me some music; music, moody food
Of us that trade in love.
ATTENDANTS
The music, ho!
Enter MARDIAN the Eunuch,
CLEOPATRA
Let it alone; let 's to billiards : come, Charmian.
CHARMIAN
My arm is sore; best play with Mardian.
CLEOPATRA
As well a woman with an eunuch play'd
As with a woman. Come, you '11 play with me, sir?
MARDIAN
As well as I can, madam.
CLEOPATRA
And when good will is show'd, though 't come too short.
The actor may plead pardon. I '11 none now :
Give me mine angle; we '11 to the river : there,
My music playing far off, I will betray
Tawny-finn'd fishes ; my bended hook shall pierce
Their slimy jaws; and, as I draw them up,
52 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
I *11 think them every one an Antony,
And say a Ah, ha! you 're caught ».
CHARMIAN
'T was merry when
You wager'd on your angling; when your diver
Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he
With fervency drew up.
CLEOPATRA
That time, — O times! —
I laugh'd him out of patience; and that night
I laugh'd him into patience : and next morn.
Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed ;
Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst
I wore his sword Philippan.
EnUr a MESSENGER.
O, from Italy !
Ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears,
That long time have been barren.
MESSENGER
Madam, madam,—
CLEOPATRA
Antonius dead ! — If thou say so, villain.
Thou kill'st thy mistress : but well and free.
If thou so yield him, there is gold, and here
My bluest veins to kiss ; a hand that kings
Have lipp'd, and trembled kissing.
MESSENGER
First, madam, he is well.
ACT //, SCENE V 53
CLEOPATRA
Why, there 's more gold.
But, sirrah, mark, we use
To say the dead are well : bring it to that,
The gold I give thee will I melt and pour
Down thy ill-uttering throat.
MESSENGER
Good madam, hear me.
CLEOPATRA
Well, go to, I will ;
But there 's no goodness in thy face : if Antony
Be free and healthful, — so tart a favour
To trumpet such good tidings ! If not well.
Thou shouldst come like a Fury crown'd with snakes,
Not like a formal man.
MESSENGER
Will 't please you hear me ?
CLEOPATRA
I have a mind to strike thee ere thou speak'st :
Yet, if thou say Antony lives, is well.
Or friends with Caesar, or not captive to him,
I '11 set thee in a shower of gold, and hail
Rich pearls upon thee.
MESSENGER
Madam, he 's well.
CLEOPATRA
Well said.
MESSENGER
And friends with Caesar.
^4 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
CLEOPATRA
Thou 'rt an honest man.
MESSENGER
Caesar and he are greater friends than ever.
CLEOPATRA
Make thee a fortune from me.
MESSENGER
But yet, madam, —
CLEOPATRA
I do not like « But yet », it does allay
The good precedence ; fie upon « But yet o !
« But yet » is as a gaoler to bring forth
Some monstrous malefactor. Prithee, friend.
Pour out the pack of matter to mine ear,
The good and bad together : he 's friends with Caesar ;
In state of health thou say'st; and thou say'st free.
MESSENGER
Free, madam! no; I made no such report :
He 's bound unto Octavia.
CLEOPATRA
For what good turn ?
MESSENGER
For the best turn i' th' bed.
CLEOPATRA
I am pale, Charmian.
MESSENGER
Madam, he 's married to Octavia.
CLEOPATRA
The most infectious pestilence upon thee !
Strikes him down.
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ACT II, SCENE V 55
MESSENGER
Good madam, patience.
CLEOPATRA
What say you ? Hence,
Strikes him again.
Horrible villain ! or I '11 spurn thine eyes
Like balls before me; I '11 unhair thy head :
She hales him up and down.
Thou shalt be whipp'd with wire, and stew'd in brine,
Smarting in lingering pickle.
MESSENGER
Gracious madam,
I that do bring the news made not the match.
CLEOPATRA
Say 't is not so, a province I will give thee.
And make thy fortunes proud : the blow thou hadst
Shall make thy peace for moving me to rage :
And I will boot thee with what gift beside
Thy modesty can beg.
MESSENGER
He 's married, madam.
CLEOPATRA
Rogue, thou hast liv'd too long.
Draws a imife.
MESSENGER
Nay, then I '11 run.
What mean you, madam ? I have made no fault.
Exit.
CHARMIAN
Good madam, keep yourself within yourself:
The man is innocent.
56 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CLEOPATRA
Some innocents 'scape not the thunderbolt.
Melt Egypt into Nile! and kindly creatures
Turn all to serpents! Call the slave again :
Though I am mad, I will not bite him : call.
CHARMIAN
He is afeard to come.
CLEOPATRA
I will not hurt him.
Exk Chamian.
These hands do lack nobility, that they strike
A meaner than myself; since I myself
Have given myself the cause.
Rt-tnkr CHARMIAN and MESSENGER.
Come hither, sir.
Though it be honest, it is never good
To bring bad news : give to a gracious message
An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell
Themselves when they be felt.
MESSENGER
I have done my duty.
CLEOPATRA
Is he married?
I cannot hate thee worser than I do.
If thou again say Yes.
MESSENGER
He 's married, madam.
CLEOPATRA
The gods confound thee! dost thou hold there still ?
ACT II, SCENE V 5;
MESSENGER
Should I lie, madam ?
CLEOPATRA
O, I would thou didst,
So half my Egypt were submerg'd and made
A cistern for scal'd snakes ! Go, get thee hence :
Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me
Thou wouldst appear most ugly. He is married?
MESSENGER
I crave your highness' pardon.
CLEOPATRA
He is married ?
MESSENGER
Take no offence that I would not offend you :
To punish me for what you make me do
Seems much unequal : he 's married to Octavia.
CLEOPATRA
O, that his fault should make a knave of thee.
That art but what thou 'rt sure of. Get thee hence ;
The merchandise which thou hast brought from Rome
Are all too dear for me : lie they upon thy hand,
And be undone by 'em !
Exit Messenger.
CHARMIAN
Good your highness, patience.
CLEOPATRA
In praising Antony, I have dispraised Caesar.
CHARMIAN
Many times, madam.
Antony and Cleopatra. 8
58 ANTONY AND CIEOPATKA
CLEOPATRA
I am paid for't now.
Lead me from hence;
I faint : O Iras, Charmiao ! 't is no matter.
Go to the fellow, good Aiexas; bid him
Report the feature of Octavia, her years,
Her inclination, let him not leave out
The colour of her hair : bring me word quickly.
E>il Alciii.
Let him for ever go : — let him not — Charmian,
Though he be painted one way like a Gorgon,
The other way 's a Mars. Bid you Aiexas
To Mirdiin.
Bring me word how tall she is. Pity me, Charmian
But do not speak to me. Lead me to my chamber.
SCENE VI
Near Misenuh
Flouriih.
Enltr POMPEY and MENAS at one iide
with drum and trumpet;
al a..ol/«r, CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, ENOBARBUS,
MECvENAS, mth SOLDIERS marching.
POMPEY
Your hostages 1 have, so have you mine ;
And we shall talk before we light.
ACT II, SCENE VI 59
. CiESAR
Most meet
That first we come to words; and therefore have we
Our written purposes before us sent;
Which, if thou hast considered; let us know
If 't will tie up thy discontented sword,
And carry back to Sicily much tall youth
That else must perish here.
POMPEY
To you all three,
The senators alone of this great world,
Chief factors for the gods, I do not know
Wherefore my father should revengers want,
Having a son and friends; since Julius Caesar,
Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted.
There saw you labouring for him. What was 't
That moved pale Cassius to conspire; and what
Made the all-honour'd, honest Roman, Brutus,
With the arm'd rest, courtiers of beauteous freedom,
To dr/ench the Capitol ; but that they would
Have one man but a man ? And that is it
Hath made me rig my navy; at whose burihen
The anger'd ocean foams; with which I meant
To scourge the ingratitude that despiteful Rome
Cast on my noble father.
CiESAR
Take your time.
ANTONY
Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails;
6o ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
We *U speak with thee at sea : at land, thou know'st
How much we do o'er-count thee.
POMPEY
At land, indeed.
Thou dost o'er-count me of my father's house :
But, since the cuckoo builds not for himself,
Remain in 't as thou mayst.
LEPIDUS
Be pleas'd to tell us —
For this is from the present — how you take
The offers we have sent you.
CESAR
There 's the point.
ANTONY
Which do not be entreated to, but weigh
What it is worth embrac'd.
C£SA!1
And what may follow.
To try a larger fortune.
POMPEf
You have made me offer
Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must
Rid all the sea of pirates; then, to send
Measures of wheat to Rome; this 'greed upon,
To part with unhack'd edges, and bear back
Our targes undinted.
C«SAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS
Thai 's our offer.
POMPEY
Know, then.
ACT II, SCENE VI
I came before you here a man prepared
To take this offer : but Mark Antony
Put me to some impatience : though I lose
The praise of it by telling, you must know,
When Caesar and your brother were at blows.
Your mother came to Sicily and did find
Her welcome friendly.
ANTONY
I have heard it, Pompey;
And am well studied for a liberal thanks
Which I do owe you.
POMPEY
Let me have your hand :
I did not think, sir, to have met you here.
ANTONY
The beds i' th' east are soft; and thanks to you,
That calFd me timelier than my purpose hither;
For I have gain'd by 't.
CiESAR
Since I saw you last,
There is a change upon you.
POMPEY
Well, I know not
What counts harsh fortune casts upon my face;
But in my bosom shall she never come,
To make my heart her vassal.
LEPIDUS
Well met here.
POMPEY
I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed :
62 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
I crave our composition may be written,
And seal'd between us.
CASAR
That 's the next to do.
POMPEY
We 'II feast each other ere we part; and let 's
Draw lots who shall begin.
ANTONY
That will I, Pompey.
POMPEY
No, Antony, take the lot : but, first
Or last, your fine Egyptian cookery
Shall have the fame. 1 have heard that Julius Caesar
Grew fat with feasting there.
ANTONY
You have heard much
POMPEY
I have fair meanings, sir.
ANTONY
And fair words to them.
POMPEY
Then so much have I heard :
And I have heard, Apollodorus carried —
ENOBARBUS
No more of that : he did so.
POMPEY
What, 1 pray you ?
ENOBARBUS
A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.
ACT i/, SCENE VI 63
POMPEY
1 know thee now : how far'st thou, soldier ?
ENOBARBUS
Well ;
And well am like to do; for, I perceive,
Four feasts are toward.
POMPEY
Let me shake thy hand ;
I never hated thee : I have seen thee fight,
When I have envied thy behaviour.
ENOBARBUS
Sir,
I never lov'd you much; but I ha* prais'd ye,
When you have well deserv'd ten times as much
As I have said you did.
POMPEY
Enjoy thy plainness,
It nothing ill becomes thee.
Aboard my galley I invite you all :
Will you lead, lords ?
CASAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS
Show us the way, sir.
POM-PEY
Come.
Exeunt all but Menas and Enobarbus.
MENAS, aside.
Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have made this
treaty. — You and I have known, sir.
ENOBARBUS
At sea, I think.
64 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
MENAS
We have, sir.
ENOBARBUS
You have done well by water.
MENAS
And you by land.
ENOBARBUS
I will praise any man that will praise me ; though it
cannot be denied what I have done by land.
MENAS
Nor what I have done by water.
ENOBARBUS
Yes, something you can deny for your own safety :
you have been a great thief by sea.
MENAS
And you by land.
ENOBARBUS
There I deny my land service. But give me your
hand, Menas: if our eyes had authority, here they
might take two thieves kissing.
MENAS
All men's faces are true, whatsome'er their hands are.
ENOBARBUS
But there is never a fair woman has a true face.
MENAS
No slander ; they steal hearts.
ENOBARBUS
We came hither to fight with you.
ACT 11, SCENE VI 65
MENAS
For my part, I am sorry it is turn'd to a drinking.
Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.
ENOBARBUS
If he do, sure, he cannot weep 't back again.
MENAS
You 've said, sir. We look'd not for Mark Antony
here : pray you, is he married to Cleopatra ?
ENOBARBUS
Caesar's sister is called Octavia.
MENAS
True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.
ENOBARBUS
But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.
MENAS
Pray ye, sir ?
ENOBARBUS
'T is true.
MENAS
Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.
ENOBARBUS
If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not
prophesy so.
MENAS
I think the policy of that purpose made more in the
marriage than the love of the parties.
ENOBARBUS
I think so too. But you shall find, the band that
seems to tie their friendship together will be the very
Antony and CUopatra, 9
66 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
strangler of their amity : Octavia is of a holy, cold, and
still conversation.
MENAS
Who would not have his wife so ?
ENOBARBUS
Not he that himself is not so ; which is Mark Antony.
He will to his Egyptian dish again: then shall the sighs
of Octavia blow the iire up in Caesar ; and, as I said
before, that which is the strength of their amity shall
prove the immediate author of their variance. Antony
will use his affection where it is : he married but his
occasion here.
MENAS
And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard?
I have a health for you.
ENOBARBUS
I shall take it, sir: we have us'd our throats in Egypt.
MENAS
Come, let 's away.
Exeunt.
SCENE VII
On board Pompey*$ galley, off Misenum
Music plays.
Enter two or three SERVANTS with a banquet,
FIRST SERVANT
Here they '11 be, man. Some o' their plants are ill-
rooted already ; the least wind i' th' world will blow
them down.
ACT II, SCENE Vn 67
SECOND SERVANT
Lepidus is high-coloured.
FIRST SERVANT
They have made him drink alms-drink.
SECOND SERVANT
As they pinch one another by the disposition, he
cries out « No more » ; reconciles them to his entreaty,
and himself to the drink.
FIRST SERVANT
But it raises the greater war between him and his dis-
cretion.
SECOND SERVANT
Why, this it is to have a name in great men*s fel-
lowship : 1 had as lief have a reed that will do me no
service as a partisan I could not heave.
FIRST SERVANT
To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen
to move in 't, are the holes where eyes should be,
which pitifully disaster the cheeks.
A sennet sounded.
Enter CiESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY,
AGRIPPA, MECiENAS,
ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other captains,
ANTONY, to Cesar.
Thus do they, sir : they take the flow o' th' Nile
By certain scales i* th' pyramid, they know.
By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth
Or foison follow: the higher Nilus swells,
The more it promises : as it ebbs, the seedsman
68 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,
And shortly comes to harvest.
LEPIDUS
You *ve strange serpents there.
ANTONY
Ay, Lepidus.
LEPIDUS
Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by
the operation of your sun : so is your crocodile.
ANTONY
They are so.
POMPEY
Sit, — and some wine ! A health to Lepidus !
LEPIDUS
I am not so well as I should be, but I Ml ne*er out.
ENOBARBUS
Not till you have slept; I fear me you Ml be in till
then.
LEPIDUS
Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyra-
mises are very goodly things; without contradiction, I
have heard that.
MEN AS, aside to Pompey.
Pompey, a word.
POMPEY, aside to Menas.
Say in mine ear : what is 't ?
MENAS, aside to Pompey.
Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain.
And hear me speak a word.
ACT II, SCENE VII 69
POMPEY» aside to Menas.
Forbear me till anon.
This wine for Lepidus !
LEPIDUS
What manner o' thing is your crocodile?
ANTONY
It is shapM, sir, like itself; and it is as broad as it
hath breadth : it is just so high as it is, and moves with
it own organs: it lives by that which nourisheth it ; and
the elements once out of it, it transmigrates.
LEPIDUS
What colour is it of?
ANTONY
Of it own colour too.
LEPIDUS
'T is a strange serpent.
ANTONY
'T is so. And the tears of it are wet.
C^SAR
Will this description satisfy him ?
ANTONY
With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a
very epicure,
POMPEY, aside to Menas.
Go hang, sir, hang ! Tell me of that ? away !
Do as I bid you. Where 's this cup I call'd for ?
MENAS, aside to Pompey.
If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,
Rise from thy stool.
70 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
POMPEY, aside to Menas.
I think thou *rt mad. The matter ?
Rises, and walks aside.
MENAS
I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.
POMPEY
Thou hast serv'd me with much faith. What 's else to say ?
Be jolly, lords.
ANTONY
These quick-sands, Lepidus,
Keep off them, for you sink.
MENAS
Wilt thou be lord of all the world ?
POMPEY
What say'st thou ?
MENAS
Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That 's twice.
POMPEY
How should that be ?
MENAS
But entertain it,
And, though thou think me poor, I am the man
Will give thee all the world.
POMPEY
Hast thou drunk well ?
MENAS
No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.
Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove :
Whatever the ocean pales, or sky inclips.
Is thine, if thou wilt ha 't.
ACT II, SCENE Vll 71
POMPEY
Show me which way.
MEN AS
These three world-sharers, these competitors,
Are in thy vessel : let me cut the cable;
And, when we are put off, fall to their throats :
All there is thine.
POMPEY
Ah, this thou shouldst have done.
And not have spoke on 't 1 In me 't is villany ;
In thee 't had been good service. Thou must know,
T is not my profit that does lead mine honour;
Mine honour, it. Repent that e'er thy tongue
Hath so betray'd thine act: being done unknown,
I should have found it afterwards well done;
But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink.
MENAS, aside.
For this,
I '11 never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.
Who seeks, and will not take when once 't is offer'd.
Shall never find it more.
POMPEY
This health to Lepidus 1
ANTONY
Bear him ashore. I '11 pledge it for him, Pompey.
ENOBARBUS
Here 's to thee, Menas !
MENAS
Enobarbus, welcome !
72 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
POMPEY
Fill till the cup be hid.
ENOBARBUS
There 's a strong fellow, Menas.
Pointing to the Attendant who carries off Lepidus.
MENAS
Why?
ENOBARBUS
A' bears the third part of the world, man; see*st not?
MENAS
The third part, then, is drunk : would it were all,
That it might go on wheels !
ENOBARBUS
Drink thou; increase the reels.
MENAS
Come.
POMPEY
This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.
ANTONY
It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho !
Here is to Caesar !
C^SAR
I could well forbear 't.
It 's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain.
And it grows fouler.
ANTONY
Be a child o' th' time.
C^SAR
Possess it, I 'II make answer :
ACT 11, SCENE VU -jl
But I had rather fast from all four days
Than drink so much in one.
ENOBARBUS, to Antony.
Ha, my brave emperor !
Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals,
And celebrate our drink ?
POMPEY
Let 's ha 't, good soldier.
ANTONY
Come, let 's all take hands.
Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe.
ENOBARBUS
All take hands.
Make battery to our ears with the loud music :
The while I 'II place you : then the boy shall sing ;
The holding every man shall bear as loud
As his strong sides can volley.
Music plays. Enobarbus places them hand in hand.
THE SONG
Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne !
In thy vats our cares be drown'd.
With thy grapes our hairs be crown*d :
Cup us, till the world go round,
Cup us, till the world go round!
Ci£SAR
What would you more? Pompey, good night. Good brother.
Let me request you off : our graver business
Antony and CUopalra. lo
74 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Frowns at this levity. Genile lords, let 's part;
You see we have burnt our cheeks : strong Enobarbus
Is weaker than the wine ; and mine own tongue
Splits what it speaks : the wild disguise hath almost
Antick'dusall. Whatneeds more words? Goodnight.
Good Antony, your hand.
POMPEY
1 'II try you on the shore.
ANTONY
And shall, sir : give 's your hand.
POMPEY
O Antony,
You have my father's house, — But, what ? we are friends.
Come, down into the boat.
ENOBARBUS
Take heed you fall not.
Eitunt all bul Enobirbui ind Mfnii.
Menas, I '11 not on shore.
MENAS
No, to my cabin.
These drums! these trumpets, flutes ! what I
Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell
To these great fellows; sound and be hang'd, sound out!
Sound ■ flourlih, vriih drumi.
ENOBARBUS
Ho ! says a'. There 's my cap.
MENAS
Ho! Noble captain, come.
A "I
f.j 1, V
■-<.• ^
! : ;
I
ACl 111
A PLArN IN Stria
Enltr VENTIDIUS as il wir< m triumph, ivUh SELIUS, and
olhtr Romans, OrrrcERS and Soldiers ; tbt dead
body of Pacorus bornt before him.
VENTIDIUS
Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck; and now
Pleas'd fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death
Make me revenger. Bear the King's son's body
Before our army. Thy Pacorus, Orodes,
Pays this for Marcus Crassus.
78 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
SILIUS
Noble Ventidius,
Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm,
The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media,
Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither
The routed fly; so thy grand captain Antony
Shall set thee on triumphant chariots and
Put garlands on thy head.
VENTIDIUS
O Silius, Silius,
I have done enough; a lower place, note well.
May make too great an act : for learn this, Silius;
Better to leave undone, than by our deed
Acquire too high a fame when him we serve 's away.
Ciesar and Antony have ever won
More in their officer than person : Sossius,
One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant.
For quick accumulation of renown.
Which he achiev'd by th' minute, lost his favour.
Who does i' th' wars more than his captain can
Becomes his captain's captain : and ambition,
The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss.
Than gain which daikens him.
I could do more to do Antonius good,
But't would offend him ; and in his offence
Should my performance perish.
Slims
Thou hast, Ventidius. that
Without the which a soldier, and his sword.
Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony?
ACT III, SCENE I 79
VENTIDIUS
I Ml humbly signify what in his name,
That magical word of war, we have effected ;
How, with his banners and his well-paid ranks.
The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia
We have jaded out o' th' field.
SILIUS
Where is he now?
VENTIDIUS
He purposeth to Athens : whither, with what haste
The weight we must convey with 's will permit,
We shall appear before him. On, there; pass along!
Exeunt.
SCENE 11
Rome. — An antechamber in CiESAR's house
Enter AGRIPPA at one door, ENOBARBUS at another.
AGRIPPA
What, are the brothers parted ?
ENOBARBUS
They have dispatch'd with Pompey, he is gone ;
The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps
To part from Rome; Cfcsar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.
AGRIPPA
'T is a noble Lepidus.
8o ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
ENOBARBUS
A very fine one : O, how he loves Caesar!
AGRIPPA
Nay, but how clearly he adores Mark Antony!
ENOBARBUS
Caesar? Why, he *s the Jupiter of men.
AGRIPPA
What 's Antony? The god of Jupiter.
ENOBARBUS
Spake you of Caesar? How ! the nonpareil !
AGRIPPA
O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!
ENOBARBUS
Would you praise Caesar, say « Caesar : » go no further.
AGRIPPA
Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.
ENOBARBUS
But he loves Caesar best; yet he loves Antony :
Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!
His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
Knee! down, kneel down, and wonder.
AGRIPPA
Both he loves.
ENOBARBUS
They are his shards, and he their beetle. (Trumpeu wUhin.) So ;
This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.
AGRIPPA
Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell.
ACT in, SCENE II 8i
EnUr Ci£SAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS and OCTAVIA.
ANTONY
No further, sir.
C^SAR
You take from me a great part of myself;
Use me well in 't. Sister, prove such a wife
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band
Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece of virtue, which is set
Betwixt us as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it ; for better might we
Have lov'd without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish'd.
ANTONY
Make me not offended
In your distrust.
CiESAR
1 have said.
ANTONY
You shall not find.
Though you be therein curious, the least cause
For what you seem to fear: so, the gods keep you.
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
We will here part.
C^SAR
Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well:
The elements be kind to thee, and make
Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.
Antony and Cleopatra, i i
8i ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
OCTAVIA
My noble brother !
ANTONY
The April 's in her e3Fes : it is love's spring.
And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.
OCTAVIA
Sir, look well to my husband's house; and —
C«SAR
What,
Octavia?
OCTAVIA
I 'II tell you in your ear.
ANTONY
Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue, — the swan's down-feather.
That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
And neither way inclines.
ENOBARBUS, atido lo Agrippi.
Will Caesar weep ?
ACRIPPA. aiid( to Enobarbui.
He has a cloud in 's face.
ENOBARBUS, aiide lo Agrippa.
He were the worse for that, were he a horse;
So is he, being a man.
. AGRLITA, atJdt 10 Enobarbut.
Why, Enobarbus,
When Antony found Julius Cassar dead.
He cried almost to roaring;and he wept
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.
ACT HI, SCENE II 83
ENOBARBUS, aside to Agrippa.
That year, indeed, he was troubled with a rheum ;
What willingly he did confound he wail'd,
Believe 't, till I wept too.
CitSAR
*
No, sweet Octavia,
You shall hear from me still ; the time shall not
Out-go my thinking on you.
ANTONY
Come, sir, come;
1 Ml wrestle with you in my strength of love :
Look, here I have you; thus I let you go.
And give you to the gods.
Cits A R
Adieu ; be happy !
LEPIDUS
Let all the number of the stars give light
To thy fair way !
Cits A R
Farewell, farewell!
Kisses Octavia.
ANTONY
Farewell !
Trumpet? sound. Exeunt.
84 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
SCENE III
Alexandria. — Cleopatra's palace
EnUr CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS and ALEXAS.
CLEOPATRA
Where is the fellow?
ALEXAS
Half afeard to come.
CLEOPATRA
Go to, goto.
EnUr the MESSENGER as before.
Come hither, sir.
ALEXAS
Good majesty,
Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you
But when you are well pleas'd.
CLEOPATRA
That Herod's head
I '11 have : but how, when Antony is gone
Through whom I might command it? Come thou near.
MESSENGER
Most gracious majesty, —
CLEOPATRA
Didst thou behold Octavja?
MESSENGER
Ay, dread queen.
ACT 111, SCENE HI 8S
CLEOPATRA
Where ?
MESSENGER
Madam, in Rome;
I lookM her in the face, and saw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.
CLEOPATRA
Is she as tall as me?
MESSENGER
She is not, madam.
CLEOPATRA
Didst hear her speak? is she shrill-tongu'd or low?
MESSENGER
Madam, I heard her speak ; she is low-voic'd.
CLEOPATRA
That 's not so good. He cannot like her long ?
CHARMIAN
Like her! O IsisI 't is impossible.
CLEOPATRA
I think so, Charmian : dull of tongue, and dwarfish I
What majesty is in her gait? Remember,
If e'er thou look'dst on majesty.
MESSENGER
She creeps :
Her motion and her station are as one ;
She shows a body rather than a life,
A statue than a breather.
CLEOPATRA
Is this certain ?
86 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
MESSENGER
Or I have no observance.
CHARMIAN
Three in Egypt
Cannot make better note.
CLEOPATRA
He 's very knowing;
I do perceive 't : there 's nothing in her yet :
The fellow has good judgement.
CHARMIAN
Excellent.
CLEOPATRA
Guess at her years, I prithee.
MESSENGER
Madam,
She was a widow, —
CLEOPATRA
Widow! Charmian, hark.
MESSENGER
And I do think she 's thirty.
CLEOPATRA
Bear'st thou her face in mind ? is 't long or round ?
MESSENGER
Round even to faultiness.
CLEOPATRA
For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
Her hair, what colour?
MESSENGER
Brown, madam : and her forehead
As low as she would wish it.
ACT III, SCENE III 87
CLEOPATRA
There 's gold for thee.
Thou must not take my former sharpness ill :
I will employ thee back again; I find thee
Most fit for business : go make thee ready;
Our letters are prepared.
Exit Messenger.
CHARMIAN
A proper man.
CLEOPATRA
Indeed, he is so : I repent me much
That so I harried him. Why, methinks, by him,
This creature 's no such thing.
CHARMIAN
Nothing, madam.
CLEOPATRA
The man hath seen some majesty, and should know.
CHARMIAN
Hath he seen majesty .? Isis else defend,
And serving you so long!
CLEOPATRA
I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian ;
But 't is no matter; thou shalt bring him to me
Where I will write. All may be well enough.
CHARMIAN
I warrant you, madam.
Exeunt.
88 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
SCENE IV
Athens. — A room in Antony's house
Enkr ANTONY and OCTAVIA.
ANTONY
Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that, —
That were excusable, that, and thousands more
Of semblable import, — but he hath wag'd
New wars 'gainst Pompey; made his will, and read it
To public ear :
Spoke scantly of me : when perforce he could not
But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly
He vented them ; most narrow measure lent me :
When the best hint was given him, he not took 't.
Or did it from his teeth.
OCTAVIA
O my good lord.
Believe not all; or, if you must believe.
Stomach not all. A more unhappy lady.
If this division chance, ne'er stood between,
Praying for both parts :
The good gods will mock me presently.
When 1 shall pray: « O, bless my lord and husband! »
Undo that prayer, by crying out as loud :
« O, bless my brother! « Husband win, win brother,
Prays, and destroys the prayer; no midway
'Twixt these extremes at all.
ACT HI, SCENE IV 89
ANTONY
Gentle Octavia,
Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks
Best to preserve it : if I lose mine honour,
I lose myself : better I were not yours
Than yours so branchless. But, as you requested,
Yourself shall go between 's : the mean time, lady,
I '11 raise the preparation of a war
Shall stain your brother: make your soonest haste;
So your desires are yours.
OCTAVIA
Thanks to my lord.
The Jove of power make me most weak, most weak,
Your reconciler I Wars 'twixt you twain would be
As if the world should cleave, and that slain men
Should solder up the rift.
ANTONY
When it appears to you where this begins,
Turn your displeasure that way; for our faults
Can never be so equal, that your love
Can equally move with them. Provide your going;
Choose your own company, and command what cost
Your heart has mind to.
Exeunt.
Antony and CUopatra. 1 1
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
The SAue. — Another room
Enlrr ENOBARBUS and EROS, meclir.i
ENOBARBUS
How now, friend Eros !
EROS
There 's strange news come, sir
ENOBARBUS
What, man ?
EROS
Cxsar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey.
ENOBARBUS
This is old : what is the success?
EROS
Cesar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst
Pompey, presently denied him rivality; would not let
him partake in the glory of the action : and not resting
here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to
Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him : so the poor
third is up, till death enlarge his confine.
ENOBARBUS
Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more ;
And throw between them all the food thou hast,
They 'II grind the one the other. Where 's Antony?
EROS
He 's walking in the garden — thus; and spurns
The rush that lies before him ; cries, <• Fool Lepidus ! »
\
ACT III, SCENE V 91
And threats the throat of that his officer
That murder'd Pompey.
ENOBARBUS
Our great navy 's rigg'd.
EROS
For Italy and Caesar. More, Don^itius;
My lord desires you presently : my news
I might have told hereafter.
ENOBARBUS
Twill be naught:
But let it be. Bring me to Antony.
EROS
Come, sir.
Exeunt.
SCENE VI
Rome. — C;esar*s house
Enter Ci€SAR, AGRIPPA and MECi€NAS.
CiCSAR
Contemning Rome, he has done all this, and more,
In Alexandria : here 's the manner of 't :
r th' market-place, on a tribunal silver'd,
Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
Were publicly enthroned : at the feet sat
Caesarion, whom they call my father's son.
And all the unlawful issue that their lust
Since then hath made between them. Unto her
He gave the stablishment of Egypt; made her
92 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,
Absolute queen.
MEC^NAS
This in the public eye?
CiESAR
r th* common show-place, where they exercise.
His sons he there proclaimed the kings of kings :
Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia,
He gave to Alexander ; to Ptolemy he assign'd
Syria, Cilicia and Phoenicia : she
In the habiliments of the goddess Isis
That day appeared; and oft before gave audience,
As't is reported, so.
MECiENAS
Let Rome be thus
Informed.
AGRIPPA
Who, queasy with his insolence
Already, will their good thoughts call from him.
C^SAR
The people know it ; and have now received
His accusations.
AGRIPPA
Who does he accuse?
< CiESAR
Caesar : and that, having in Sicily
Sextus Pompeius spoiPd, we had not rated him
His part o' th' isle : then does he say, he lent me
Some shipping unrestor'd : lastly, he frets
That Lepidus of the triumvirate
ACT 111, SCENE VI 93
Should be depos'd; and, being, that we detain
All his revenue.
AGRIPPA
Sir, this should be answer'd.
CiESAR
*Tis done already, and the messenger gone.
1 have told him, Lepidus was grown too cruel;
That he his high authority abus'd,
And did deserve his change : for what I have conquer'd,
I grant him part; but then, in his Armenia,
And other of his conquer'd kingdoms, I
Demand the like.
MECiENAS
He 'II never yield to that.
CJESAK
Nor must not then be yielded to in this.
Enter OCTAVIA with her train.
OCTAVIA
Hail, Caesar, and my lord ! hail, most dear Caesar!
CJESAK
That ever I should call thee castaway!
OCTAVIA
You have not calPd me so, nor have you cause.
CiESAR
Why have you stol'n upon us thus? You come not
Like Caesar's sister : the wife of Antony
Should have an army for an usher, and
The neighs of horse to tell of her approach
Long ere she did appear; the trees by the way
94 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Should have borne men; and expectation fainted,
Longing for what it had not; nay, the dust
Should have ascended to the roof of heaven,
Rais'd by your populous troops : but you are come
A market-maid to Rome ; and have prevented
The ostentation of our love, which, left unshown,
Is often left unloved : we should have met you
By sea and land; supplying every stage
With an augmented greeting.
OCTAVIA
Good my lord,
To come thus was I not constrained, but did
On my free will. My lord, Mark Antony,
Hearing that you prepared for war, acquainted
My grieved ear withal; whereon, I begg'd
His pardon for return.
CJESAK
Which soon he granted.
Being an obstruct 'tween his lust and him.
OCTAVIA
Do not say so, my lord.
C^SAR
I have eyes upon him,
And his affairs come to me on the wind.
Where is he now ?
OCTAVIA
My lord, in Athens.
CiESAR
No, my most wronged sister; Cleopatra
Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire
ACT HI, SCENE VI 9'>
Up to a whore; who now are levying
The kings o' th' earth for war : he hath assembled
BocchuS) the King of Libya; Archelaus,
Of Cappadocia ; Phiiadelphos, King
Of Paphiagonia; the Thracian King, Adallas ;
King Malchus of Arabia ; King of Pont ;
Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, King
Of Comagene; Poiemon and Amyntas,
The Kings of Mede and Lycaonia,
With a more larger list of sceptres,
OCTAVIA
Ay me, most wretched,
That have my heart parted betwixt two friends
That do afflict each other !
CiESAR
Welcome hither :
Your letters did withhold our breaking forth ;
Till we perceived, both how you were wrong led.
And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart :
Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
O'er your content these strong necessities ;
But let determined things to destiny
Hold unbewail'd their way. Welcome to Rome;
Nothing more dear to me. You are abus'd
Beyond the mark of thought : and the high gods,
To do you justice, make them ministers
Of us and those that love you. Best of comfort ;
And ever welcome to us.
AGRIPPA
Welcome, lady.
96 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
MECiENAS
Welcome, dear madam.
Each heart in Rome does love and pity you :
Only the adulterous Antony, most large
In his abominations, turns you ofT;
And gives his potent regiment to a trull,
That noises it against us.
OCTAVIA
Is it so, sir?
C£SAR
Most certain. Sister, welcome : pray you.
Be ever known to patience : my dear'st sister !
Exeunt.
SCENE Vll
Near Actium. — Antony's camp
Enter CLEOPATRA and ENOBARBUS.
CIEOPATRA
I will be even with thee, doubt it not.
ENOBARBUS
But why, why, why ?
CLEOPATRA
Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars,
And say'st it is not fit.
ENOBARBUS
Well, is it, is it?
ACT in, SCENE VU 97
CLEOPATRA
If not denounc'd against us, why should not we
Be there in person ?
ENOBARBUS, aside
Well, I could reply:
If we should serve with horse and mares together,
The horse were merely lost ; the mares would bear
A soldier and his horse.
CLEOPATRA
What is 't you say ?
ENOBARBUS
Your presence needs must puzzle Antony ;
Take from his heart, take from his brain, from 's time.
What should not then be spar'd. He is already
Traduc'd for levity; and 't is said in Rome
That Photinus an eunuch and your maids
Manage this war.
CLEOPATRA
Sink Rome, and their tongues rot
That speak against us ! A charge we bear i' th' war,
And, as the president of my kingdom, will
Appear there for a man. Speak not against it ;
I will not stay behind.
ENOBARBUS
Nay, I have done.
Here comes the Emperor.
Enter ANTONY and CANIDIUS.
ANTONY
Is it not strange, Canidius,
Antony and Cleopatra. i 3
98 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
That from Tarentum and Brundusium
He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea.
And take in Toryne? You have heard on 't, sweet?
CLEOPATRA
Celerity is never more admir'd
Than by the negligent.
ANTONY
A good rebuke,
Which might have well becom'd the best of men,
To taunt at slackness. Canidius, we
Will fight with him by sea.
CLEOPATRA
By sea ! what else ?
CANIDIUS
Why will my lord do so ?
ANTONY
For that he dares us to 't
ENOBARBUS
So hath my lord dar'd him to single fight.
CANIDIUS
Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia,
Where Caesar fought with Pompey; but these offers.
Which serve not for his vantage, he shakes off;
And so should you.
ENOBARBUS
Your ships are not well mann'd ;
Your mariners are muleters, reapers, people
Ingross'd by swift impress; in Caesar's fleet
Are those that often have 'gainst Pompey fought :
Their ships are yare ; yours, heavy : no disgrace
ACT III, SCENE VII 99
Shall fall you for refusing him at sea,
Being prepared for land.
ANTONY
By sea, by sea.
ENOBARBUS
Most worthy sir, you therein throw away
The absolute soldiership you have by land ;
Distract your army, which doth most consist
Of war-mark'd footmen ; leave unexecuted
Your own renowned knowledge ; quite forego
The way which promises assurance ; and
Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard, .
From firm security.
ANTONY
ril fight at sea.
CLEOPATRA
I have sixty sails, Caesar none better.
ANTONY
Our overplus of shipping will we burn ;
And, with the rest full-mann'd, from theheadof Actium
Beat the approaching Caesar. But if we fail.
We then can do 't at land.
EnUr a MESSENGER.
Thy business ?
MESSENGER
The news is true, my lord ; he is descri'd ;
Caesar has taken Toryne.
ANTONY
Can he be there in person ? 't is impossible ;
loo ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Strange that his power should be. Canidius,
Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land.
And our twelve thousand horse. We '11 to our ship :
Away, my Thetis !
Enter a SOLDIER.
How now, worthy soldier!
SOLDIER
O noble emperor, do not fight by sea ;
Trust not to rotten planks : do you misdoubt
This sword and these my wounds? Let the Egyptians
And the Phoenicians go a-ducking : we
Have used to conquer, standing on the earth,
And fighting foot to foot.
ANTONY
Well, well : away !
Eieunt Antony, Cleopatra and Enobarbus.
SOLDIER
By Hercules, I think I am i' th' right.
CANIDIUS
Soldier, thou art; but his whole action grows
Not in the power on *t : so our leader 's led,
And we are women's men.
SOLDIER
You keep by land
The legions and the horse whole, do you not ?
CANIDIUS
Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius,
Publicola, and Caelius, are for sea:
But we keep whole by land. This speed of Caesar's
ACT 111, SCENE VII loi
Carries beyond belief.
SOLDIER
While he was yet in Rome,
His power went out in such distractions as
BeguiFd all spies.
CANIDIUS
Who 's his lieutenant, hear you?
SOLDIER
They say, one Taurus.
CANIDIUS
Well I know the man.
Enttr a MESSENGER.
MESSENGER
The Emperor calls Canidius.
CANIDIUS
With news the time 's with labour, and throes forth,
Each minute, some.
Exeunt.
SCENE VIII
A PLAIN NEAR ACTIUM
Enter C.tSAR, and TAURUS, with his army, marching,
C£SAR
Taurus !
TAURUS
My lord ?
C£SAR
Strike not by land; keep whole : provoke not battle,
loi ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed
The prescript of this scroll : our fortune lies
Upon this jump.
SCENE IX
Another pakt of the plain
Eiiltr ANTONY and ENOBARBUS.
ANTONY
Set we our squadrons on yond side o' th' hill,
In eye of Cxsar's battle ; from which place
We may the number of the ships behold.
And so proceed accordingly.
SCENE X
Another fart Of the flain
CANIDIUS marchtlh with his land army ont way ovtr tht
stagt; and TAURUS, the Ueulenant of Ci€SAR, tht olhcr
way. AfUr thtir going in, is hrard tht noiit of a ua-fight.
Alarum. — Enttr ENOBARBUS.
ENOBARBUS
Naught, naught, all naughi! I can behold no longer:
The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral.
ACT ///, SCENE X io3
With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder :
To see 't mine eyes are blasted.
Enter SCARUS.
SCARUS
Gods and goddesses,
All the whole synod of them !
ENOBARBUS
What 's thy passion ?
SCARUS
The greater cantle of the world is lost
With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away
Kingdoms and provinces.
ENOBARBUS
How appears the fight?
SCARUS
On our side like the token'd pestilence,
Where death is sure. Yon ribaldred nag of Egypt, —
Whom leprosy o'ertake ! — i' th* midst o' th' fight,
When vantage like a pair of twins appear'd,
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder.
The breese upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sails and flies.
ENOBARBUS
That I beheld :
Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not
Endure a further view
SCARUS
She once being looPd,
The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
I04 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard,
Leaving the fight in height, flies after her :
I never saw an action of such shame;
Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before
Did violate so itself.
ENOBARBUS
Alack, alack !
EnUr CANIDIUS.
CANIDIUS
Our fortune on the sea is out of breath.
And sinks most lamentably. Had our general
Been what he knew himself, it had gone well :
O, he has given example for our flight,
Most grossly, by his own !
ENOBARBUS
Ay, are you thereabouts ?
Why, then, good night indeed.
CANIDIUS
Toward Peloponnesus are they fled.
SCARUS
'T is easy to 't ; and there I will attend
What further comes.
CANIDIUS
To Caesar will I render
My legions and my horse : six kings already
Show me the way of yielding.
ENOBARBUS
I '11 yet follow
ACT III, SCENE X io5
The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason
Sits in the wind against me.
Exeunt.
SCENE XI
Alexandria. — Cleopatra's palace
Enttr ANTONY with ATTENDANTS.
ANTONY
Hark! the land bids me tread no more upon 't;
It is asham'd to bear me ! Friends, come hither :
I am so lated in the world, that I
Have lost my way for ever: I have a ship
Laden with gold; take that, divide it; fly,
And make your peace with Caesar.
ATTENDANTS
Fly! not we.
ANTONY
1 have fled myself; and have instructed cowards
To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone ,
I have myself resolv'd upon a course
Which has no need of you ; be gone :
My treasure's in the harbour, take it. O,
1 followed that I b'ush to look upon :
My very hairs do mutiny; for the white
Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them
For fear and doting. Friends, be gone : you shall
Have letters from me to some friends that will
Antony and Cleopatra. 14
io6 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Sweep your way for you. Pray you, look not sad,
Nor make replies of loathness : take the hint
Which my despair proclaims ; let that be left
Which leaves itself : to the sea-side straightway :
I will possess you of that ship and treasure.
Leave me, I pray, a little : pray you now :
Nay, do so ; for, indeed, I have lost command.
Therefore I pray you : I '11 see you by and by.
Sits down.
Enter CLEOPATRA, Ud by CHARMIAN and IRAS,
EROS following.
EROS
Nay, gentle madam, to him, comfort him.
IRAS
Do, most dear queen.
CHARMIAN
Do ! why : what else ?
CLEOPATRA
Let me sit down. O Juno !
ANTONY
No, no, no, no, no.
EROS
See you here, sir ?
ANTONY
O fie, fie, fie !
CHARMIAN
Madam !
IRAS
Madam, O good empress !
ACT HI, SCENE XI 107
EROS
Sir, sir, —
ANTONY
Yes, my lord, yes; he at Phiiippi kept
His sword e'en like a dancer; while I struck
The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and 't was I
That the mad Brutus ended : he alone
Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had
In the brave squares of war : yet now — No matter.
CLEOPATRA
Ah, stand by.
EROS
The Queen, my lord, the Queen.
IRAS
Go to him, madam, speak to him :
He is unqualitied with very shame.
CLEOPATRA
Well then, sustain me : O !
EROS
Most noble sir, arise; the Queen approaches :
Her head 's declin'd, and death will seize her, but
Your comfort makes the rescue.
ANTONY
I have offended reputation,
A most unnoble swerving.
EROS
Sir, the Queen.
ANTONY
O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt ? See,
How I convey my shame out of thine eyes
i
io8 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
By looking back what I have left behind
'Stroy'd in dishonour.
CLEOPATRA
O my lord, my lord,
Forgive my fearful sails ! I little thought
You would have follow'd.
ANTONY
Egypt, thou knew'st too well
My heart was to thy rudder ti'd by th' strings.
And thou shouldst tow me after : o'er my spirit
Thy full supremacy thou knew'st, and that
Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods
Command me.
CLEOPATRA
O, my pardon !
ANTONY
Now I must
To the young man send humble treaties, dodge
And palter in the shifts of lowness; who
With half the bulk o' th' world play'd as I pleas'd.
Making and marring fortunes. You did know
How much you were my conqueror; and that
My sword, made weak by my affection, would
Obey it on all cause.
CLEOPATRA
Pardon, pardon !
ANTONY
Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates
All that is won and lost : give me a kiss;
Even this repays me. We sent our schoolmaster;
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ACT III, SCENE XI 109
Is he come back ? Love, I am full of lead.
Some wine, within there, and our viands ! Fortune knows
We scorn her most when most she offers blows.
Exeunt.
SCENE XII
Egypt. — Caesar's camp
Enter Ci€SAR, DOLABELLA, THYREUS, with others.
CiESAK
Let him appear that 's come from Antony.
Know you him ?
DOLABELLA
Caesar, *t is his schoolmaster :
An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither
He sends so poor a pinion of his wing.
Which had superfluous kings for messengers
Not many moons gone by.
Enter EUPHRONIUS, ambassador from ANTONY.
CiESAK
Approach, and speak.
EUPHRONIUS
Such as I am, I come from Antony :
I was of late as petty to his ends
As is the morn-dew on the myrtle-leaf
To his grand sea.
no ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Be 't so : declare thine office.
EUPHRONIUS
Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and
Requires to live in Egypt : which not granted,
He lessens his requests; and to thee sues
To let him breathe between the heavens and earth,
A private man in Athens : this for him.
Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness ;
Submits her to thy might; and of thee craves
The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs,
Now hazarded to thy grace.
CiESAR
For Antony,
I have no ears to his request. The Queen
Of audience nor desire shall fail, so she
From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend.
Or take his life there : this if she perform.
She shall not sue unheard. So to them both.
EUPHRONIUS
Fortune pursue thee !
C^SAR
Bring him through the bands.
Exit Euphronius.
(To Thyrcus.)
To try thy eloquence, now 't is time : dispatch ;
From Antony win Cleopatra : promise.
And in our name, what she requires; add more,
From thine invention, offers : women are not
In their best fortunes strong; but want will perjure
ACT III, SCENE Xll in
The ne'er-touch'd vestal : try thy cunning, Thyreus;
Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we
Will answer as a law.
THYREUS
Caesar, I go.
CiESAR
Observe how Antony becomes his flaw,
And what thou think^st his very action speaks
In every power that moves.
THYREUS
Caesar, I shall.
Exeunt.
SCENE xm
Alexandria. — Cleopatra's palace
Enter CLEOPATRA*, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN
and IRAS.
CLEOPATRA
What shall we do, Enobarbus?
ENOBARBUS
Think, and die.
CLEOPATRA
Is Antony or we in fault for this ?
ENOBARBUS
Antony only, that would make his will
Lord of his reason. What though you fled
From that great face of war, whose several ranges
112 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
Frighted each other? why should he follow ?
The itch of his affection should not then
Have nick'd his captainship; at such a point,
When half to half the world opposM, he being
The mered question : *t was a shame no less
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags,
And leave his navy gazing.
CLEOPATRA
Prithee, peace.
Enter ANTONY with EVPHKOl^WS, the Ambassador.
ANTONY
Is that his answer.^
EUPHRONIUS
Ay, my lord.
ANTONY
The Queen shall then have courtesy, so she
Will yield us up.
EUPHRONIUS
He says so.
ANTONY
Let her know 't.
To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head.
And he will fill thy wishes to the brim
With principalities.
CLEOPATRA
That head, my lord ?
ANTONY
To him again : tell him he wears the rose
ACT III, SCENE Kill ii3
Of youth upon him; from which the world should note
Something particular: his coin, ships, legions,
May be a coward's; whose ministers would prevail
Under the service of a child as soon
As i' th' command of Caesar : 1 dare him therefore
To lay his gay comparisons apart,
And answer me declined, sword against sword,
Ourselves alone. I 'II write it : follow me.
Exeunt Antony and Euphronius.
ENOBARBUS, aside.
Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will
(instate his happiness, and be stag'd to th' show,
Against a sworder ! I see men's judgements are
A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them.
To suffer all alike. That he should dream.
Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
Answer his emptiness ! Caesar, thou hast subdu'd
His judgement too.
Enter an ATTENDANT.
ATTENDANT
A messenger from Caesar.
CLEOPATRA
What, no more ceremony ? See, my women !
Against the blown rose may they stop their nose
That kneel'd unto the buds. Admit him, sir.
Exit Attendant.
ENOBARBUS, aside.
Mine honesty and I begin to square.
Antony and CUopatra. iS
114 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
The loyalty well held to fools does make
Our faith mere folly : yet he that can endure
To follow with allegiance a falFn lord
Does conquer him that did his master conquer,
And earns a place i' th' story.
Enter THYREUS.
CLEOPATRA
Caesar's will ?
THYREUS
Hear it apart.
CLEOPATRA
None but friends: say boldly
THYREUS
So, haply, are they friends to Antony.
ENOBARBUS
He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has;
Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master
Will leap to be his friend : for us, you know
Whose he is we are, and that is, Caesar's.
THYREUS
So.
Thus then, thou most renown'd : Caesar entreats,
Not to consider in what case thou stand'st,
Further than he is Caesar.
CLEOPATRA
Go on : right royal.
THYREUS
He knows that you embrace not Antony
ACT ///, SCENE XIII ii5
As you did love, but as you fear'd him.
CLEOPATRA
O!
THYREUS
The scars upon your honour, therefore, he
Does pity, as constrained blemishes,
Not as deserv'd.
CLEOPATRA
He is a god, and knows
What is most right : mine honour was not yielded.
But conquer'd merely.
ENOBARBUS. aside
To be sure of that,
1 will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky,
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
Thy dearest quit thee.
Exit.
THYREUS
Shall I say to Caesar
What you require of him ? for he partly begs
To be desir'd to give. It much would please him.
That of his fortunes you should make a staff
To lean upon : but it would warm his spirits,
To hear from me you had left Antony,
And put yourself under his shroud.
The universal landlord.
CLEOPATRA
What 's your name?
THYREUS
My name is Thyreus.
ii6 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CLEOPATRA
Most kind messenger.
Say to great Caesar this : in deputation
I kiss his conquering hand : tell him, I am prompt
To lay my crown at 's feet, and there to kneel :
Tell him, from his all-obeying breath 1 hear
The doom of Egypt.
THYREUS
T is your noblest course.
Wisdom and fortune combating together.
If that the former dare but what it can.
No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
My duty on your hand.
CLEOPATRA
Your Caesar's father oft,
When he hath mus'd of taking kingdoms in,
Bestow'd his lips on that unworthy place,
As it rain'd kisses.
Ke-enttr ANTONY and ENOBARBUS.
ANTONY
Favours, by Jove that thunders !
What art thou, fellow?
THYREUS
One that but performs
The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest
To have command obey'd.
ENOBARBUS, aside.
You will be whipp'd.
ACT III, SCENE Xin 117
ANTONY
Approach there! Ah, you kite! Now, gods and devils!
Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried « Ho! »
Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth,
And cry « Your will ? » Have you no ears ? I am
Antony yet.
Enitr ATTENDANTS.
Take hence this Jack, and whip him.
ENOBARBUS, aside.
'T is better playing with a lion's whelp
Than with an old one dying.
ANTONY
Moon and stars !
Whip him. Were 't twenty of the greatest tributaries
That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
So saucy with the hand of she here, — what 's her name,
Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows.
Till, like a boy, you see him cringe his face.
And whine aloud for mercy : take him hence.
THYREUS
Mark Antony !
ANTONY
Tug him away : being whipp'd.
Bring him again : this Jack of Caesar's shall
Bear us an errand to him.
Exeunt Attendants with Tliyreus.
You were half blasted ere 1 knew you : ha !
Have 1 my pillow left unpress'd in Rome,
ii8 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Forborne the getting of a lawful race,
And by a gem of women, to be abus'd
By one that looks on feeders ?
CLEOPATRA
Good my lord, —
ANTONY
You have been a boggier ever :
And when we in our viciousness grow hard —
misery on 't ! — the wise gods seel our eyes ;
In our own filth drop our clear judgements; make us
Adore our errors; laugh at *s, while we strut
To our confusion.
CLEOPATRA
O, is 't come to this?
ANTONY
1 found you as a morsel cold upon
Dead Caesar's trencher; nay, you were a fragment
Of Cneius Pompey's ; besides what hotter hours,
Unregister'd in vulgar fame, you have
Luxuriously pick'd out : for, 1 am sure,
Though you can guess what temperance should be,
You know not what it is.
CLEOPATRA
Wherefore is this ?
ANTONY
To let a fellow that will take rewards
And say « God quit you! » be familiar with
My playfellow, your hand ; this kingly seal
And plighter of high hearts ! O, that I were
Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar
ACT III, SCENE Kill 119
The horn'd herd ! for 1 have savage cause ;
And to proclaim it civilly, were like
A halter'd neck which does the hangman thank
For being yare about him.
Re-enUr ATTENDANTS with THYREUS.
Is he whipp'd ?
FIRST ATTENDANT
Soundly, my lord.
ANTONY
Cried he ? and begg*d he pardon?
FIRST ATTENDANT
He did ask favour.
ANTONY
If that thy father live, let him repent
Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry
To follow Caesar in his triumph, since
Thou hast been whippM for following him: henceforth
The white hand of a lady fever thee,
Shake thou to look on 't. Get thee back to Caesar^
Tell him thy entertainment : look thou say
He makes me angry with him ; for he seems
Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am.
Not what he knew I was : he makes me angry ;
And at this time most easy 't is to do't.
When my good stars, that were my former guides.
Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires
Into the abysm of hell. If he mislike
My speech and what is done, tell him he has
120 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom
He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture.
As he shall like, to quit me : urge it thou :
Hence with thy stripes, begone !
Exit Thyreus.
CLEOPATRA
Have you done yet?
ANTONY
Alack, our terrene moon
Is now eclipsM; and it portends alone
The fall of Antony !
CLEOPATRA
I must stay his time.
ANTONY
To flatter CaBsar,would you mingle eyes
With one that ties his points?
CLEOPATRA
Not know me yet?
ANTONY
Cold-hearted toward me ?
CLEOPATRA
Ah, dear, if 1 be so.
From my cold heart let heaven engender hail.
And poison it in the source; and the first stone
Drop in my neck : as it determines, so
Dissolve my life ! The next Caesarion smite !
Till by degrees the memory of my womb.
Together with my brave Egyptians all.
By the discandying of this pelleted storm,
ACT III, SCENE Kill 121
Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile
Have buried them for prey !
ANTONY
I am satisfied.
Caesar sits down in Alexandria; where
I will oppose his fate. Our force by land
Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too
Have knit again, and fleet, threatening most sea-like.
Where hast thou been, my heart ? Dost thou hear, lady ?
If from the field I shall return once more
To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood ;
I and my sword will earn our chronicle :
There 's hope in't yet.
CLEOPATRA
That 's my brave lord !
ANTONY
I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breathed.
And fight maliciously : for when mine hours
Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
Of me for jests; but now I 'II set my teeth,
And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,
Let 's have one other gaudy night : call to me
All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more;
Let's mock the midnight bell.
CLEOPATRA
It is my birth-day:
I had thought to have held it poor; but, since my lord
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
ANTONY
We will yet do well.
Antony and Cleopatra. 16
113 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
CLEOPATRA
Call all his noble captains to my lord.
ANTONY
Do so, we '11 speak to them ; and to-night I '11 force
The wine peep through their scars. Comeon, my queen;
There's sap in 't yet. The next time 1 do fight,
I '11 make death love me ; for f will contend
Even with his pestilent scythe.
Eieam til but Enobirbui.
ENOBARBUS
Now he 'II outstare the lightning. To be furious.
Is to be frighted out of fesr; and in that mood
The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still,
A diminution in our captain's brain
Restores his heart : when valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
Some way to leave him.
.^.: Exit.
ACT !V -:Ci.-Nr y
ACT IV
SCENE I
Before Aluandria. — Ccsar's camp
Enltr CvESAR, AGRIPPA, and MEC/€NAS, with his army;
C*SAR rtading a Utter.
CASAR
He calls me boy; and chides, as he had power
To beat me out of Egypt ; my messenger
He hath whipp'd with rods; dares meto personal combat,
Ciesar to Antony : let the old ruffian know
I have many other ways to die ; meantime
Laugh at his challenge.
124 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
MECiENAS
Caesar must think,
When one so great begins to rage, he 's hunted
Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now
Make boot of his distraction : never anger
Made good guard for itself.
CiESAR
Let our best heads
Know, that to-morrow the last of many battles
We mean to fight : within our files there are.
Of those that serv'd Mark Antony but late,
Enough to fetch him in. See it done :
And feast the army ; we have store to do 't,
And they have earn'd the waste. Poor Antony !
Exeimi.
SCENE II
Alexandria. — Cleopatra's palace
EnUr ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS,
CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, with others.
ANTONY
He will not fight with me, Domitius.
ENOBARBUS
No.
ANTONY
Why should he not ?
ACT IV, SCENE II »2S
ENOBARBUS
He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune,
He is twenty men to one.
ANTONY
To-morrow, soldier,
By sea and land I '11 fight : or I will live.
Or bathe my dying honour in the blood
Shall make it live again. Woo 't thou fight well ?
ENOBARBUS
ril strike, and cry « Take all ».
ANTONY
Well said ; come on.
Call forth my household servants : let 's to night
Be bounteous at our meal.
Enttr three or four SERVITORS.
Give me thy hand,
Thou hast been rightly honest ; — so hast thou ; —
Thou, — and thou, — and thou : — you have serv'd me well,
And kings have been your fellows.
CLEOPATRA, aside to Enobarbus.
What means this.?
ENOBARBUS, aside to Cleopatra.
T is one of those odd tricks which sorrow shoots
Out of the mind.
ANTONY
And thou art honest too.
I wish I could be made so many men,
And all of you clapp'd up together in
126 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
An Antony, that I might do you service
So good as you have done.
ALL
The gods forbid !
ANTONY
Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night:
Scant not my cups ; and make as much of me
As when mine empire was your fellow too,
And suffered my command.
CLEOPATRA, aside to Enobarbus.
What does he mean ?
ENOBARBUS, aside to Cleopatra.
To make his followers weep.
ANTONY
Tend me to-night;
May be it is the period of your duty :
Haply you shall not see me more ; or if,
A mangled shadow : perchance to-morrow
You '11 serve another master. I look on you
As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends,
I turn you not away; but, like a master
MarriM to your good service, stay till death :
Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more.
And the gods yield you for 't !
ENOBARBUS
What mean you, sir.
To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep ;
And I, an ass, am onion-ey'd : for shame,
Transform us not to women.
ACT IV, SCENE 11 127
ANTONY
Ho, ho, ho !
Now the witch take me, if I meant it thus !
Grace grow where those drops fall ! My hearty friends.
You take me in too dolorous a sense;
For I spake to you for your comfort; did desire you
To burn this night with torches : know, my hearts,
I hope well of to-morrow ; and will lead you
Where rather I '11 expect victorious life
Than death and honour. Let 's to supper, come.
And drown consideration.
Exeunt.
SCENE III
The same. — Before the palace
Enter two SOLDIERS to their guard.
FIRST SOLDIER
Brother, good night : to-morrow is the day.
second soldier
It will determine one way : fare you well.
Heard you of nothing strange about the stre3ts ?
FIRST soldier
Nothing. What news ?
second soldier
Belike 't is but a rumour. Good night to you.
FIRST soldier
Well, sir, good night.
128 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Enter two other SOLDIERS.
SECOND SOLDIER
Soldiers, have careful watch.
THIRD SOLDIER
And you. Good night, good night.
They place themselves in every corner of the stage.
FOURTH SOLDIER
Here we : and if to-morrow
Our navy thrive, I have an absolute hope
Our landmen will stand up.
THIRD SOLDIER
*T is a brave army.
And full of purpose.
Music of the hautboys as under the stage.
FOURTH SOLDIER
Peace! what noise?
FIRST SOLDIER
List, list !
SECOND SOLDIER
Hark!
FIRST SOLDIER
Music i'th'air.
THIRD SOLDIER
Under the earth
FOURTH SOLDIER
It signs well, does it not?
THIRD SOLDIER
No.
ACT IV, SCENE III 129
FIRST SOLDIER
Peace, I say!
What should this mean?
SECOND SOLDIER
*T is the god Hercules, whom Antony lov'd,
Now leaves him.
FIRST SOLDIER
Walk; let 's see if other watchmen
Do hear what we do.
They advance to another pott.
SECOND SOLDIER
How now, masters!
ALL, speaking together.
How now !
How now ! do you hear this ?
FIRST SOLDIER
Ay; is't not strange?
THIRD SOLDIER
Do you hear, masters ? do you hear?
FIRST SOLDIER
Follow the noise so far as we have quarter ;
Let 's see how it will give off.
ALL
Content. T is strange.
Exeunt.
Antony and Cltopatra. 17
3o ANTONY ANb CLEOPATRA
SCENE IV
The same. — A room in the palace
Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, and
others attending.
ANTONY
Eros! mine armour, Eros!
CLEOPATRA
Sleep a little.
ANTONY
No, my chuck. Eros, come; mine armour, Eros !
Enter EROS with armour.
Come, good fellow, put mine iron on :
If fortune be not ours to-day, it is
Because we brave her : come
CLEOPATRA
Nay, I '11 help too
What 's this for ?
ANTONY
Ah, let be, let be! thou art
The armourer of my heart : false, false ; this, this.
CLEOPATRA
Sooth, la, I Ml help : thus it must be.
ANTONY
Well, well;
ACT IV, SCENE IV i3
We shall thrive now. Seest thou, my good fellow ?
Go put on thy defences.
EROS
Briefly, sir.
CLEOPATRA
Is not this buckled well?
ANTONY
Rarely, rarely :
He that unbuckles this, till we do please
To daff 't for our repose, shall hear a storm.
Thou fumblest, Eros; and my queen 's a squire
More tight at this than thou : dispatch. O love,
That thou couldst see my wars to-day, and knew'st
The royal occupation ! thou shouldst see
A workman in 't.
Enter an armed SOLDIER.
Good morrow to thee; welcome:
Thou look'st like him that knows a warlike charge :
To business that we love we rise betime,
And go to 't with delight.
SOLDIER
A thousand, sir.
Early though 't be, have on their riveted trim.
And at the port expect you.
Shout. Trumpets flourish.
Enter CAPTAINS and SOLDIERS.
CAPTAINS
The morn is fair. Good morrow, general.
,3i ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
ALL
Good morrow, general.
ANTO^Y
'T is well blown, lads :
This morning, like the spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins betimes.
So, so; come, give me that : this way; well said.
Fare thee well, dame, whate'er becomes of me :
This is a soldier's kiss : rebukeable
KiiKi her.
And wonhy shameful check it were, to stand
On more mechanic compliment; I 'II leave thee
Now, like a man of steel. You that will fight,
Follow me close ; I '11 bring you to 't. Adieu.
Eicnnl Anion]'. Eroi, Ciptiini (nd Soldicn.
CHARM IAN
Please you, retire to your chamber.
CLEOPATRA
Lead me.
He goes forth gallantly. That he and Caesar might
Determine this great war in single fight !
Then, Antony, — but now — Well, on.
SCENE V
AlEXANDRIA. — AktONt's CAMr
Trumptli loiind.
Enlff ANTONY and EROS; a SOLDIER mttlwg ihfm
SOLDIER
The gods make this a happy day to Antony!
ACT IV, SCENE V i33
ANTONY
Would thou and those thy scars had once prevail'd
To make me fight at land!
SOLDIER
Hadst thou done so,
The kings that have revolted, and the soldier
That has this morning left thee, would have still
FoUow'd thy heels.
ANTONY
Who's gone this morning?
SOLDIER
Who!
One ever near thee : call for Enobarbus,
He shall not hear thee ; or from Caesar's camp
Say « I am none of thine ».
ANTONY
What say'st thou ?
SOLDIER
Sir,
He is with Caesar.
EROS
Sir, his chests and treasure
He has not with him.
ANTONY
Is he gone?
SOLDIER
Most certain.
ANTONY
Go, Eros, send his treasure after; do it;
Detain no jot, I charge thee : write to him —
iJ4 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
I will subscribe — gentle adieus and greetings;
Say that 1 wish he never find more cause
To change a master. O, my fortunes have
Corrupted honest men ! Dispatch. — Enobarbust
SCENE VI
Alexundkia. — Cesar's camt
Enter C,€SAR, AGRIPPA, with ENOBARBUS, and olbti
CtSAR
Go forth, Agrippa, and begin the fight :
Our will is Antony be took alive;
Make it so known.
AGRIPPA
Caesar, I shall.
Eiii.
CjESAR
The time of universal peace is near :
Prove this a prosp'rous day, the three-nook'd world
Shall bear the olive freely.
Enter a MESSENGER.
MESSENGER
Antony
Is come into the Reld.
CfSAR
Go charge Agrippa
ACT IV, SCENE VI i35
Plant those that have revolted in the van,
That Antony may seem to spend his fury
Upon himself.
Exeunt all but Enobarbus.
ENOBARBUS
Alexas did revolt ; and went to Jewry on
Affairs of Antony ; there did persuade
Great Herod to incline himself to Caesar,
And leave his master Antony : for this pains
Caesar hath hang'd him. Canidius and the rest
That fell away have entertainment, but
No honourable trust. I have done ill ;
Of which I do accuse myself so sorely,
That I will joy no more.
Enter a SOLDIER of Czsar^s,
SOLDIER
Enobarbus, Antony
Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with
His bounty overplus : the messenger
Came on my guard ; and at thy tent is now
Unloading of his mules.
ENOBARBUS
I give it you.
SOLDIER
Mock not, Enobarbus.
I tell you true : best you saPdthe bringer
Out of the host; I must attend mine office,
Or would have done 't myself. Your emperor
Continues still a Jove.
Exit.
i36 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
ENOBARBUS
I am alone the villain of the earth,
And feel I am so most. O Antony,
Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid
My better service, when my turpitude
Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my heart:
If swift thought break it not, a swifter mean
Shall outstrike thought : but thought will do 't, I feel
I fight against thee! No : I will go seek
Some ditch wherein to die; the foul'st best fits
My latter part of life.
Exit.
SCENE VII
Field of battle between the camps
Alarum. Drums and trumpets.
Enkr AGRIPPA and othfrs.
AGRIPPA
Retire, we have engag'd ourselves too far:-
Caesar himself has work, and our oppression
Exceeds what we expected.
Alarums. Exeunt.
EnUr ANTONY, and SCARUS wounded.
SCARUS
O my brave emperor, this is fought indeed!
Had we done so at first, we had droven them home
With clouts about their heads.
ACT IV, SCENE VII il-j
ANTONY
Thou bleed'st apace.
SCARUS
I had a wound here that was like a T,
But now 't is made an H.
ANTONY
They do retire.
SCARUS
We 'ii beat 'em into bench-holes : I have yet
Room for six scotches more.
Enter EROS.
EROS
They are beaten, sir; and our advantage serves
For a fair victory.
SCARUS
Let us score their backs,
And snatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind :
'T is sport to maul a runner.
ANTONY
I will reward thee
Once for thy spritely comfort, and ten-fold
For thy good valour. Come thee on.
SCARUS
I 'Ii halt after.
Ex«un(.
Antony and Cleopatra. 18
i38 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
SCENE VIII
Under the walls of Alexandria
Alarum.
Enfirr ANTONY, in a march; SCARUS, with others.
ANTONY
We have beat him to his camp : run one before,
And let the Queen know of our gests. To-morrow,
Before the sun shall see 's, we 'II spill the blood
That has to-day escaped. I thank you all ;
For doughty-handed are you, and have fought
Not as you serv'd the cause, but as 't had been
Each man's like mine ; you have shown all Hectors.
Enter the city, clip your wives, your friends.
Tell them your feats ; whilst they with joyful tears
Wash the congealment from your wounds, and kiss
The honour'd gashes whole.
To Scarus.
Give me thy hand ;
Enkr CLEOPATRA, attended.
To this great fairy 1 'II commend thy acts,
Make her thanks bless thee.
To Cleopatra.
O thou day o' th' world,
Chain mine arm'd neck : leap thou, attire and all.
Through proof of harness to my heart, and there
Ride on the pants triumphing!
ACT IV, SCENE VIII 139
CLEOPATRA
Lord of lords !
O infinite virtue, com'st thou smiling from
The world's great snare uncaught ?
ANTONY
My nightingale,
We have beat them to their beds. What, girl ! though grey
Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet ha' we
A brain that nourishes our Tierves, and can
Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man;
Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand :
Kiss it, my warrior : he hath fought to-day
As if a god, in hate of mankind, had
Destroyed in such a shape.
CLEOPATRA
I '11 give thee, friend,
An armour all of gold; it was a king's.
ANTONY
He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled
Like holy Phoebus' car. Give me thy hand :
Through Alexandria make a jolly march;
Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them :
Had our great palace the capacity
To camp this host, we all would sup together,
And drink carouses to the next day's fate,
Which promises royal peril. Trumpeters,
With brazen din blast you the city's ear;
Make mingle with our rattling tabourines;
That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together,
Applauding our approach. Exeunt.
MO ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
SCENE IX
CiESAR*S CAMP
SENTINELS at thfir post.
FIRST SOLDIER
If we be not reliev'd within this hour,
We must return to th' court of guard : the night
Is shiny; and they say we shall embattle
By the second hour i' th' morn.
SECOND SOLDIER
This last day was
A shrewd one to 's.
Enttr ENOBARBUS.
ENOBARBUS
O, bear me witness, night, -
THIRD SOLDIER
What man is this?
SECOND SOLDIER
Stand close, and list him.
ENOBARBUS
Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon.
When men revolted shall upon record
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent !
FIRST SOLDIF.R
Enobarbus!
ACT IV, SCENE IX 141
THIRD SOLDIER
Peace !
Hark further.
ENOBARBUS
O sovereign mistress of true melancholy.
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me : throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault;
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous.
Forgive me in thine own particular ;
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver and a fugitive :
O Antony! O Antony !
Dies.
SECOND SOLDIER
Let *s speak
To him.
FIRST SOLDIER
Let 's hear him, for the things he speaks
May concern Caesar.
THIRD SOLDIER
Let 's do so. But he sleeps.
FIRST SOLDIER
Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his
Was never yet for sleep.
SECOND SOLDIER
Go we to him.
142 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
THIRD SOLDIER
Awake, sir, awake; speak to us.
SECOND SOLDIER
Hear you, sir?
FIRST SOLDIER
The hand of death hath raught him.
Drums afar off.
Hark! the drums
Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him
To the court of guard;* he is of note : our hour
Is fully out.
THIRD SOLDIER
Come on, then ;
He may recover yet.
Exeunt with the hody.
SCENE X
Between the two camps
EnUr ANTONY and SCARUS, with th^ir army,
ANTONY
Their preparation is to-day by sea;
We please them not by land.
SCARUS
For both, my lord.
ANTONY
I would they 'Id fight i' th' fire or i' th' air;
We 'Id fight there too. But this it is; our foot
ACT IV, SCENE X i^Z
Upon the hills adjoining to the city
Shall stay with us : order for sea is given ;
They have put forth the haven. [Go we up]
Where their appointment we may best discover,
And look on their endeavour.
Exeunt.
SCENE XI
Another part of the same
Enkr Ci£SAR and his army,
CJESKK
But being charged, we will be still by land,
Which, as I take 't, we shall ; for his best force
Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales,
And hold our best advantage.
Exeuni,
SCENE XII
Another part of the same
EnUr ANTONY and SCARUS.
ANTONY
Yet they are not join'd : where yond pine does stand,
I shall discover all : I Ml bring thee word
Straight, how 't is like to go.
Exit.
144 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
SCARUS
Swallows have built
In Cleopatra's sails their nests : the augurers
Say they know not, they cannot tell ; look grimly.
And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony
Is valiant, and dejected; and, by starts.
His fretted fortunes give him hope, and fear.
Of what he has, and has not.
Alarum afar ofT, as at a sea-fight.
Re-enter ANTONY.
ANTONY
All is lost;
This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me :
My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
They cast their caps up and carouse together
Like friends long lost. Triple-turn'd whore! 't is thou
Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart
Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly;
For when I am reveng'd upon my charm,
I have done all. Bid them all fly; begone.
Exit Scarus.
O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more :
Fortune and Antony part here; even here
Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts
That spaniePd me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark*d,
That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am :
O this false soul of Egypt ! this grave charm, —
ACT IV, SCENE XII i^b
Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and calTd them home;
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end, —
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguil'd me to the very heart of loss.
What, Eros, Eros!
EnUr CLEOPATRA.
Ah, thou spell! Avaunt!
CLEOPATRA
Why is my lord enrag'd against his love?
ANTONY
Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving.
And blemish Caesar's triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians :
Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy sex ; most monster-like, be shown
For poor'st diminutives, for doits; and let
Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
With her prepared nails.
Exit Cleopatra.
'T is well thou 'rt gone.
If it be well to live; but better 't were
Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death
Might have prevented many. Eros, ho!
The shirt of Nessus is upon me : teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage :
Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' th' moon;
And with those hands, that grasp'd the heaviest club
Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die :
Antony and Cleopatra. 19
146 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall
Under this plot ; she dies for 't. Eros, ho !
Exit.
SCENE XIII
Alexandria. — Cleopatra's palace
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS
and MARDIAN.
CLEOPATRA
Help me, my women ! O, he is more mad
Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly
Was never so emboss'd
CHARMIAN
To the monument!
There lock yourself, and send him word you are dead.
The soul and body rive not more in parting
Than greatness going off.
CLEOPATRA
To the monument!
Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself;
Say, that the last I spoke was « Antony »,
And word it, prithee, piteously : hence, Mardian,
And bring me how he takes my death . To the monument !
ExeuDt.
ACT IV, SCENE XIV 147
SCENE XIV
The same. — Another room
Enter ANTONY and EROS.
ANTONY
Eros, thou yet behold'st me?
EROS
Ay, noble lord.
ANTONY
Sometime we see a cloud that 's dragonish ;
A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon 't, that nod unto the world,
And mock our eyes with air : thou hast seen these signs ;
They are black vesper's pageants.
EROS
Ay, my lord.
ANTONY
That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct.
As water is in water.
EROS
It does, my lord.
ANTONY
My good knave Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body : here I am Antony;
148 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
1 made these wars for Egypt : and the Queen, —
Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine;
Which whilst it was mine had annex'd unto 't
A million more, now lost, — she, Eros, has
Pack'd cards with Caesar, and false-play'd my glory
Unto an enemy's triumph.
Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us
Ourselves to end ourselves.
Enter MARDIAN.
O, thy vile lady !
She has robb'd me of my sword.
MARDIAN
No, Antony;
My mistress lov'd thee, and her fortunes mingled
With thine entirely.
ANTONY
Hence, saucy eunuch ; peace !
She hath betrayed me and shall die the death.
MARDIAN
Death of one person can be paid but once,
And that she has discharged : what thou wouldst do
Is done unto thy hand : the last she spake
Was « Antony ! most noble Antony ! »
Then in the midst a tearing groan did break
The name of Antony ; it was divided
Between her heart and lips : she rendered life,
Thy name so buried in her.
ACT IV, SCENE XIV 149
ANTONY
Dead, then?
MARDIAN
Dead.
ANTONY
Unarm, Eros; the long day's task is done,
And we must sleep.
To Mardian.
That thou depart'st hence safe,
Does pay thy labour richly; go.
Exit Mardian.
Off, pluck off :
The seven-fold shield of Ajax cannot keep
The battery from my heart. O, cleave, my sides I
Heart, once be stronger than thy continent,
Crack thy frail case! Apace, Eros, apace.
No more a soldier : bruised pieces, go;
You have been nobly borne. From me awhile.
Exit Eros.
I will Overtake thee, Cleopatra, and
Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now
All length is torture : since the torch is out.
Lie down, and stray no farther : now all labour
Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles
Itself with strength : seal then, and all is done.
Eros I — I come, my queen : — Eros I — Stay for me :
Where souls do couch on flowers, we Ml hand in hand.
And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze :
Dido and her iEneas shall want troops.
And all the haunt be ours. Come, Eros, Eros I
i5o ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
m
Rt-enUr EROS.
EROS
What would my lord ?
ANTONY
Since Cleopatra died,
I have livM in such dishonour, that the gods
Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword
Quarter'd the world, and o'er green Neptune's back
With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack
The courage of a woman ; less noble mind
Than she which by her death our Caesar tells
« I am conqueror of myself ». Thou art sworn, Eros,
That, when the exigent should come, which now
Is come indeed, when I should see behind me
The inevitable prosecution of
Disgrace and horror, that, on my command.
Thou then wouldst kill me : do 't ; the time is come :
Thou strik'st not me, 't is Caesar thou defeat'st.
Put colour in thy cheek.
EROS
The gods withhold me I
Shall I do that which all the Parthian darts.
Though enemy, lost aim, and could not?
ANTONY
Eros,
Wouldst thou be window'd in great Rome and see
Thy master thus with pleach'd arms, bending down
His corrigible neck, his face subdu'd
To penetrative shame, whilst the wheel'd seat
ACT IV, SCENE XIV i5
Of fortunate Caesar, drawn before him, branded
His baseness that ensued ?
EROS
I would not see 't.
ANTONY
Come, then ; for with a wound I must be cur'd.
Draw that thy honest sword, which thou hast worn
Most useful for thy country.
EROS
O, sir, pardon me !
ANTONY
When I did make thee free, swor'st thou not then
To do this when I bade thee ? Do it at once ;
Or thy precedent services are all
But accidents unpurposed. Draw, and come.
EROS
Turn from me, then, that noble countenance,
Wherein the worship of the whole world lies.
ANTONY
Lo thee !
Turning from him.
EROS
My sword is drawn.
ANTONY
Then let it do at once
The thing why thou hast drawn it.
EROS
My dear master,
My captain, and my emperor, let me say.
Before I strike this bloody stroke, farewell.
i52 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
ANTONY
'T is said, man; and farewell.
EROS
Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike now?
ANTONY
Now, Eros.
EROS
Why, there then : thus I do escape the sorrow
Of Antony's death.
Kills himself.
ANTONY
Thrice-nobler than myself!
Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what
I should, and thou couldst not. My queen and Eros
Have by their brave instruction got upon me
A nobleness in record : but I will be
A bridegroom in my death, and run into 't
As to a lover's bed. Come then ; and, Eros,
Thy master dies thy scholar : to do thus
Falling on his sword.
I learn'd of thee. How! not dead? not dead ?
The guard, ho! O, dispatch me!
EnUr DERCETAS and GUARD.
FIRST GUARD
What 's the noise?
ANTONY
I have done my work ill, friends : O, make an end
Of what I have begun.
ACT IV, SCENE XIV i53
SECOND GUARD
The star is fall'n.
FIRST GUARD
And time is at his period.
ALL
Alas, and woe!
ANTONY
Let him that loves me strike me dead.
FIRST GUARD
Not I.
SECOND GUARD
Nor I.
THIRD GUARD
Nor any one.
Exeunt guard.
DERCETAS
Thy death and fortunes bid thy followers fly.
This sword but shown to Caesar, with this tidings,
Shall enter me with him.
Entfr DIOMEDES.
DIOMEDES
Where 's Antony?
DERCETAS
There, Diomed, there.
DIOMEDES
Lives he ^
Wilt thou not answer, man ^
Exit Dercetas.
Antony and Cleopatra. 20
i54 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
ANTONY
Art thou there, Diomed ? Draw thy sword, and give me
Sufficing strokes for death.
DIOMEDES
Most absolute lord.
My mistress Cleopatra sent me to thee.
ANTONY
When did she send thee?
DIOMEDES
Now, my lord.
ANTONY
Where is she?
DIOMEDES
Lock'd in her monument. She had a prophesying fear
Of what hath come to pass : for when she saw —
Which never shall be found — you did suspect
She had dispos'd with Caesar, and that your rage
Would not be purg'd, she sent you word she was dead;
But, fearing since how it might work, hath sent
Me to proclaim the truth ; and I am come,
I dread, too late.
ANTONY
Too late, good Diomed : call my guard, I prithee.
DIOMEDES
What, ho, the Emperor's guard ! The guard, what, ho !
Come, your lord calls!
EnUr four or five of the GUARD of Antony,
ANTONY
Bear me, good friends, where Cleopatra bides;
ACT IV, SCENE XIV i55
'T is the last service that I shall command you.
FIRST GUARD
Woe, woe are we, sir, you may not live to wear
All your true followers out.
ALL
Most heavy day!
ANTONY
Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate
To grace it with your sorrows : bid that welcome
Which comes to punish us, and we punish it
Seeming to bear it lightly. Take me up :
I have led you oft : carry me now, good friends.
And have my thanks for all.
Exeunt, bearing Antony.
SCENE XV
The same. — A monument
EnUr CLEOPATRA, and htr maids aloft, with
CHARMIAN and IRAS.
CLEOPATRA
O Charmian, I will never go from hence.
CHARMIAN
Be comforted, dear madam.
CLEOPATRA
No, I will not :
All strange and terrible events are welcome.
But comforts we despise ; our size of sorrow.
i56 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Proportion'd to our cause, must be as great
As that which makes it.
Enter, Mow, DIOMEDES.
How now! is he dead?
DIOMEDES
His death *s upon him, but not dead.
Look out o' th* other side your monument;
His guard have brought him thither.
Enter, below, ANTONY, borne by the GUARD.
CLEOPATRA
O sun,
Burn the great sphere thou mov*st in! darkling stand
The varying shore o' th' world. O Antony,
Antony, Antony! Help, Charmian, help, Iras, help;
Help, friends below; let 's draw him hither.
ANTONY
Peace 1
Not Caesar's valour hath o'erthrown Antony,
But Antony's hath triumph'd on itself.
CLEOPATRA
So it should be, that none but Antony
Should conquer Antony ; but woe 't is so !
ANTONY
I am dying, Egypt, dying; only
I here importune death awhile, until
Of many thousand kisses the poor last
I lay upon thy lips.
ACT IV, SCENE XV iS;
CLEOPATRA
I dare not, dear, —
Dear my lord, pardon, — I dare not,
Lest I be taken : not the imperious show
Of the full-fortun'd Caesar ever shall
Be brooch'd with me; if knife, drugs, serpents, have
Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe :
Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes
And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour
Demuring upon me. But come, come, Antony, —
Help me, my women, — we must draw thee up :
Assist, good friends.
ANTONY
O, quick, or I am gone.
CLEOPATRA
Here *s sport indeed ! How heavy weighs my lord !
Our strength is all gone into heaviness.
That makes the weight : had I great Juno's power.
The strong-wing'd Mercury should fetch thee up.
And set thee by Jove's side. Yet come a little, —
Wishers were ever fools, — O, come, come, come;
They heave Antony aloft to Cleopatra.
And welcome, welcome ! die where thou hast lived :
Quicken with kissing : had my lips that power.
Thus would I wear them out.
ALL
A heavy sight !
ANTONY
I am dying, Egypt, dying :
Give me some wine, and let me speak a little.
i58 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CLEOPATRA
No, let me speak; and let me rail so high,
That the false housewife Fortune break her wheel,
Provok'd by my offence.
ANTONY
One word, sweet queen :
Of Caesar seek your honour, with your safety. O!
CLEOPATRA
They do not go together.
ANTONY
Gentle, hear me :
None about Caesar trust but Proculeius.
CLEOPATRA
My resolution and my hands I '11 trust;
None about Caesar.
ANTONY
The miserable change now at my end
Lament nor sorrow at; but please your thoughts
In feeding them with those my former fortunes
Wherein I liv'd, the greatest prince o' ih' world.
The noblest; and do now not basely die.
Not cowardly put off my helmet to
My countryman, — a Roman by a Roman
Valiantly vanquished. Now my spirit is going;
I can no more.
CLEOPATRA
Noblest of men, woo 't die?
Hast thou no care of me.? shall I abide
In this dull world, which in thy absence is
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ACT IV, SCENE XV i59
No better than a sty? O, see, my women,
Antony dies.
The crown o' th' earth doth melt. My lord!
O, wither'd is the garland of the war,
The soldier's pole is fall'n : young boys and girls
Are level now with men; the odds is gone.
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon.
Faints.
CHARMIAN
O, quietness, lady!
IRAS
She is dead too, our sovereign.
CHARMIAN
Lady!
IRAS
Madam !
CHARMIAN
O madam, madam, madam !
IRAS
Royal Egypt,
Empress !
CHARMIAN
Peace, peace, Iras!
CLEOPATRA
No more; but e'en a woman, and commanded
By such poor passion as the maid that milks
And does th2 msansst chares. It were for m2
To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods;
To tell them that this world did equal theirs
■ 6o
ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
Till they had stoPn our jewel. All 's but naught;
Patience is sottish, and impatience does
Become a dog that 's mad : then is it sin
To rush into the secret house of death,
Ere death dare come to us? How do you, women?
What, what! good cheer! Why, how now.Charmianl
My noble girls! Ah, women, women, look,
Our lamp is spent, it 's out! Good sirs, take heart :
We'll bury him; and then, what's brave, what 's noble.
Let 's doit afier the high Roman fashion.
And make death proud to take us. Come, away:
This case of that huge spirit now is cold :
Ah, women, women ! come; we have no friend
But resolution, and the briefest end.
Emuoi; ihOM ibovc boring off Anion)' 'i bodj.
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ACT V
.X-;s,.- TT
SCENE 1
Ai.EXANDRiA. — Cesar's cAMr
Enter CtSAR, AGRIPPA. DOLABELLA, MEC,£NAS,
CALLUS, PROCULEIUS, and othrrs, hU toundl of u^r.
CjCSAR
Go to him, Dolahella, bid him yield;
Being so frustrate, tell him he mocks
The pauses that h; makes.
DOLABELLA
Cassar, I shall.
i6i ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
Enter DERCETAS ivilh tht sword of ANTONY .
CfSAK
Wherefore is that? and what art thou that dar'st
Appear thus to us?
DERCETAS
I am call'd Dercetas;
Mark Antony I serv'd, who best was worthy
Best to be serv'd : whilst he stood up and spoke,
He was my master; and I wore my life
To spend upon his haters. If thou please
To take me to thee, as I was to him
I 'II be to Cxsar; if thou pleasest not,
I yield thee up my life.
CASAR
What is 't thou say'st?
DERCETAS
i say, O Caesar, Antony is dead.
CfSAR
The breaking of so great a thing should make
A greater crack : the wounded world
Should have shook lions into civil streets,
And citizens to their dens : the death of Antony
Is not a single doom ; in the name lay
A moiety of the world.
DERCETAS
He is dead, Caesar;
Not by a public minister of justice,
Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand,
Which wrii his honour in the acts it did.
ACT V, SCENE I i65
Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,
Splitted the heart. This is his sword ;
I robb'd his wound of it; behold it stainM
With his most noble blood.
C^SAR
Look you sad, friends?
The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings
To wash the eyes of kings.
ACRIPPA
And strange it is,
That nature must compel us to lament
Our most persisted deeds.
MEC^NAS
His taints and honours
Waged equal with him.
ACRIPPA
A rarer spirit never
Did steer humanity; but you, gods, will give us
Some faults to make us men. Caesar is touched.
MEC^NAS
When such a spacious mirror 's set before him,
He needs must see himself.
C^SAR
O Antony!
I have follow'd thee to this; but we do lance
Diseases in our bodies : I must perforce
Have shown to thee such a declining day.
Or look on thine; we could not stall together
In the whole world : but yet let me lament.
With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts.
164 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
That thou, my brother, my competitor
In top of all design, my mate in empire.
Friend and companion in the front of war,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine his thoughts did kindle, — that our stars,
Unreconciliable, should divide
Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends, —
But I will tell you at some meeter season :
EnUr an EGYPTIAN.
The business of this man looks out of him ;
We 11 hear him what he says. Whence are you.?
EGYPTIAN
A poor Egyptian yet. The Queen my mistress.
Confined in all she has, her monument.
Of thy intents desires instruction.
That she preparedly may frame herself
To the way she 's forc'd to.
C^SAR
Bid her have good heart :
She soon shall know of us, by some of ours,
How honourably and how kindly we
Determine for her; for Caesar cannot live
To be ungentle.
EGYPTIAN
So the gods preserve thee !
Fxii.
CytSAR
Come hither, Proculeius. Go and say.
We purpose her no shame : give her what comforts
ACT V, SCENE I i65
The quality of her passion shall require,
Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke
She dp defeat us: for her life in Rome
Woul^ be eternal in our triumph : go.
And with your speediest bring us what she says,
And how you find of her.
PROCULEIUS
Caesar, I shall.
Exit.
Ci£SAR
Callus, go you along.
Exit Callus.
Where 's Dolabella,
To second Proculeius?
ALL
Dolabella!
C^SAR
Let him alone, for I remember now
How he 's employed : he shall in time be ready.
Co with me to my tent; where you shall see
How hardly I was drawn into this war;
How calm and gentle I proceeded still
In all my writings : go with me, and see
What 1 can show in this.
Exeunt.
■ 66 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
SCENE 11
Alexandria. — A room in the monument
Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARM IAN and IRAS.
CLEOPATRA
My desolation does begin to make
A better life. 'T is paltry to be Caesar;
Not being Fortune, he 's but Fortune's knave,
A minister of her will : and it is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds;
Which shackles accidents and bolts up change;
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug,
The beggar's nurse and Caesar's.
Enter, to the gates of the monument, PROCULEIUS,
CALLUS and SOLDIERS.
PROCULEIUS
Caesar sends greeting to the Queen of Egypt ;
And bids thee study oil what fair demands
Thou mean'st to have him grant thee.
CLEOPATRA
What 'sthy name?
PROCULEIUS
My name is Proculeius.
CLEOPATRA
Antony
Did tell me of you, bade me trust you ; but
I do not greatly care to be deceiv'd.
That have no use for trusting. If your master
ACT V, SCENE II 167
Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him,
That majesty, to keep decorum, must
No less beg than a kingdom : if he please
To give me conquer'd Egypt for my son.
He gives me so much of mine own, as I
Will kneel to him with thanks.
PROCULEIUS
Be of good cheer ;
You 're fall'n into a princely hand, fear nothing:
Make your full reference freely to my lord,
Who is so full of grace, that it flows over
On all that need : let me report to him
Your sweet depandency; and you shall find
A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness,
Where he for grace is kneei'd to.
CLEOPATRA
Pray you, tell him
I am his fortune's vassal, and I send him
The greatness he has got. I hourly learn
A doctrine of obedience; and would gladly
Look him i' th' face.
PROCULEIUS
This I 'II report, dear lady.
Have comfort, for I know your plight is pitied
Of him that caused it.
CALLUS
You see how easily she may be surprised :
Here Proculeius and two of the Cuard ascend the monument by a
ladder placed against a window, and, having descended, come
behind Cleopatra. Some of the Guard unbar and open the gates.
i68 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
To Proculeius and the Guard.
Guard her till Caesar come.
Exit.
IRAS
Royal queen !
CHARMIAN
O Cleopatra! thou art taken, queen.
CLEOPATRA
Quick, quick, good hands.
Drawing a dagger.
PROCULEIUS
Hold, worthy lady, hold :
Seizes and disarms her.
Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this
Reliev'd, but not betray'd.
CLEOPATRA
What, of death too.
That rids our dogs of languish?
PROCULEIUS
Cleopatra,
Do not abuse my master's bounty by
The undoing of yourself : let the world see
His nobleness well acted, which your death
Will never let come forth.
CLEOPATRA
Where art thou, death ?
Come hither, come ! come, come, and take a queen
Worth many babes and beggars!
PROCULEIUS
O, temperance, lady!
ACT V, SCENE I! 169
CLEOPATRA
Sir, I will eat no meat, I Ml not drink, sir;
If idle talk will once be necessary,
I Ml not sleep neither : this mortal house I Ml ruin.
Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I
Will not wait pinion'd at your master's court ;
Nor once be chastised with the sober eye
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up
And show me to the shouting varletry
Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt
Be gentle grave unto me! rather on Nilus' mud
Lay me stark-nak'd, and let the water-flies
Blow me into abhorring! rather make
My country's high pyramides my gibbet,
And hang me up in chains !
PROCULEIUS
You do extend
These thoughts of horror further than you shall
Find cause in Caesar.
EnUr DOLABELLA.
DOLABELLA
Proculeius,
What thou hast done thy master Caesar knows,
And he hath sent for thee : for the Queen,
I Ml take her to my guard.
PROCULEIUS
So, Dolabella,
It shall content me best : be gentle to her.
Antony and Cleopatra. a a
170 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
To Cleopatrj.
To Caesar I will speak what you shall please.
If you Ml employ me to him.
CLEOPATRA
Say, I would die.
Exeunt Procuieius and Soldiers.
DOLABELLA
Most noble empress, you have heard of me?
CLEOPATRA
I cannot tell.
DOLABELLA
Assuredly you know me.
CLEOPATRA
No matter, sir, what I have heard or known.
You laugh when boys or women tell their dreams;
Is 't not your trick?
DOLABELLA
I understand not, madam.
CLEOPATRA
I dream'd there was an Emperor Antony :
O, such another sleep, that I might see
But such another man !
DOLABELLA
If it might please ye, —
CLEOPATRA
His face was as the heavens; and therein stuck
A sun and moon, which kept their course, and lighted
The little O, the earth.
DOLABELLA
Most sovereign creature, —
ACT V, SCENE II 17
CLEOPATRA
His legs bestrid ihe ocean : his rear'd arm
Crested the world : his voice was propertied
As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty.
There was no winter in 't; an autumn 't was
That grew the more by reaping; his delights
Were dolphin-like; they show'd his back above
The element they lived in : in his livery
Walk'd crowns and crownets; realms and islands were
As plates dropp'd from his pocket.
DOLABELLA
Cleopatra!
CLEOPATRA
Think you there was, or might be, such a nrian
As this I dream'd of?
DOLABELLA
Gentle madam, no.
CLEOPATRA
You lie, up to the hearing of the gods.
But, if there be, or ever were, one such.
It 's past the size of dreaming : nature wants stufT
To vie strange forms with fancy; yet, to imaginie
An Antony, were nature's piece 'gainst fancy.
Condemning shadows quite.
DOLABELLA
Hear me, good madam.
Your loss is as yourself, great; and you bear it
As answering to the weight : would I might never
172 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Overtake pursu'd success, but I do feel,
By the rebound of yours, a grief that shoots
My very heart at root.
CLEOPATRA
I thank you, sir.
Know you what Caesar means to do with me ?
DOLABELLA
I am loath to tell you what 1 would you knew.
CLEOPATRA
Nay, pray you, sir, —
DOLABELLA
Though he be honourable, —
CLEOPATRA
He Ml lead me, then, in triumph ?
DOLABELLA
Madam, he will; I know 't.
Flourish, and shout within :
Make way there : Caesar!
Enter CitSAR, CALLUS, PROCULEIUS, MECiCNAS,
SELEUCUS, and others of his train.
CiESAR
Which is the Queen of Egypt?
DOLABELLA
It is the Emperor, madam.
Cleopatra kneels.
CiESAR
Arise, you shall not kneel :
I pray you, rise; rise, Egypt.
ACT V, SCENE II i-jZ
CLEOPATRA
Sir, the gods
Will have it thus ; my master and my lord
I must obey.
CitSAR
Take to you no hard thoughts :
The record of what injuries you did us,
Though written in our flesh, we shall remember
As things but done by chance.
CLEOPATRA
Sole sir o' th* world,
I cannot project mine own cause so well
To make it clear; but do confess I have
Been laden with like frailties which before
Have often sham'd our sex.
CitSAR
Cleopatra, know,
We will extenuate rather than enforce:
If you apply yourself to our intents.
Which towards you are most gentle, you shall find
A benefit in this change; but if you seek
To lay on me a cruelty, by taking
Antony's course, you shall bereave yourself
Of my good purposes, and put your children.
To that destruction which I Ml guard them from.
If thereon you rely. I 'II take my leave.
CLEOPATRA
And may, through all the world : 't is yours; and we.
Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest, shall
Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord.
174 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CiESAR
You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra.
CLEOPATRA
This is the brief of money, plate and jewels,
I am possessed of : 't is exactly valued ;
Not petty things admitted. Where 's Seleucus?
SELEUCUS
Here, madam.
CLEOPATRA
This is my treasurer : let him speak, my lord,
Upon his peril, that I have reserv'd
To myself nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus.
SELEUCUS
Madam,
1 had rather seal my lips, than, to my peril.
Speak that which is not.
CLEOPATRA
What have I kept back ?
SELEUCUS
Enough to purchase what you have made known.
CiESAR
Nay, blush not, Cleopatra; I approve
Your wisdom in the deed.
CLEOPATRA
See, Caesar! O, behold.
How pomp is follow'd ! mine will now be yours;
And, should we shift estates, yours would be mine.
Th' ingratitude of this Seleucus does
Even make me wild : O slave, of no more trust
ACT V, SCENE II lyS
Than love that 's hir'd! What, goest thou back? thou shalt
Go back, 1 warrant thee ; but I 'II catch thine eyes,.
Thpugh they had wings; slave, soulless villain, dog!
O rarely base !
CiESAR
Good queen, let us entreat you.
CLEOPATRA
O Caesar, what a wounding shame is this.
That thou, vouchsafi ig here to visit me.
Doing the honour of thy lordliness
To one so meek, that mine own servant should
Parcel the sum of my disgraces by
Addition of his envy! Say, good Caesar,
That I some lady trifles have reservM,
Immoment toys, things of such dignity
As we greet modern friends withal; and say,
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia and Octavia, to induce
Their mediation ; must 1 be unfolded
With one that I have bred? The gods! it smites me
Beneath the fall I have.
To Seleucus.
Prithee, go hence ;
Or 1 shall show the cinders of my spirits
Through the ashes of my chance : wert thou a man,
Thou wouldst have mercy on me.
CitSAR
Forbear, Seleucus.
Exit Seleucus.
176 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CLEOPATRA
Be it known, that we, the greatest, are misthought
For things that others do; and, when we fall.
We answer others' merits in our name.
Are therefore to be pitied.
CfSAR
Cleopatra,
Not what you have reserv'd, nor what acknowledg'd.
Put we i' th' roll of conquest : still be 't yours,
Bestow it at your pleasure; and believe,
Csesar 's no merchant, to make prize with you
Of things that merchants sold. Therefore be cheer'd;
Make not your thoughts your prisons : no, dear queen ;
For we intend so to dispose you as
Yourself shall give us counsel. Feed, and sleep :
Our care and. pity is so much upon you.
That we remain your friend; and so, adieu.
CLEOPATRA
My master, and my lord !
CCSAR
Not so. Adieu.
Flouriih. Eicum Ccur and liit rriin.
CLEOPATRA
He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not
Be noble to myself : but, hark thee, Charmian.
Whi»iwr» Chirmi»n.
IRAS
Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,
And we are for tKe dark.
ACT V, SCENE II 177
CLEOPATRA
Hie thee again
I have spoke already, and it is provided;
Go put it to the haste.
CHARM IAN
Madam, I will.
Kt'fnitr DOLABELLA.
DOLABELLA
Where is the Queen ?
CHARMIAN
Behold, sir.
Exit.
CLEOPATRA
Dolabella !
DOLABELLA
Madam, as thereto sworn by your command.
Which my love makes religion to obey,
I tell you this : Caesar through Syria
Intends his journey; and within three days
You with your children will he send before :
Make your best use of this : I have performed
Your pleasure and my promise.
CLEOPATRA
Dolabella,
I shall remain your debtor.
DOLABELLA
I your servant.
Adieu, good queen ; I must attend on Caesar.
Antony and CUopatra. a 3
178 ANTONY AND CLEOPATR.A
CLEOPATRA
Farewell, and thanks.
Eiii DoUbelli.
Now, Ira&, what think'st thou?
Thou, an Egyptian puppet, shall be shown
In Rome, as well as I : mechanic slaves
With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers, shall
Uplift us to the view; in their thick breaths.
Rank of gross diet, shall we be enclouded,
And forc'd to drink their vapour.
IRAS
The gods forbid !
CLEOPATRA
Nay, 't is most certain, Iras : saucy lictors
Will catch at us, like strumpets ; and scald rhymers
Ballad us out o' tune : the quick comedians
Extemporally wilt stage us, and present
Our Alexandrian revels; Antony
Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see
Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness
r th' posture of a whore.
IRAS
O the good gods !
CLEOPATRA
Nay, that 's certain.
IRAS
1 'II never see 't; for, 1 am sure, my naiis
Are stronger than mine eyes.
CLEOPATRA
Why, that 's the way
ACT V, SCENE II 179
To fool their preparation, and to conquer
Their most absurd intents.
Kt'tnUr CHARMIAN.
Now, Charmian !
Show me, my women, like a queen : go fetch
My best attires ; I am again for Cydnus,
To meet Mark Antony : sirrah Iras, go.
Now, noble Charmian, we '11 dispatch indeed;
And, when thou hast done this chare, I '11 give thee leave
To play till doomsday. Bring our crown and all.
Wherefore 's this noise ?
Exit Irt%. A noise within.
Enttr a GUARDSMAN.
GUARDSMAN
Here is a rural fellow
That will not be denied your highness' presence :
He brings you figs.
CLEOPATRA
Let him come in.
Exit Guardsman.
What poor an instrument
May do a noble deed! he brings me liberty.
My resolution 's placed, and I have nothing
Of woman in me ; now from head to foot
I am marble-constant ; now the fleeting moon
No planet is of mine.
i8o ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Ke-mier GUARDSMAN, with CLOWN bringing
in a basket.
GUARDSMAN
This is the man.
CLEOPATRA
Avoid, and leave him.
Exit Guardsman.
Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there,
That kills and pains not?
CLOWN
Truly, I have him; but I would not be the party that
should desire you to touch him, for his biting is immort-
al ; those that do die of it do seldom or never recover.
CLEOPATRA
Remember'st thou any that have died on 't?
CLOWN
Very many, men and women too. I heard of one
of them no longer than yesterday : a very honest
woman, but something given to lie; as a woman should
not do, but in the way of honesty : how she died of the
biting of it, what pain she felt : truly, she makes a very
good report o' th' worm; but he that will believe all
that they say, shall never be saved by half that they do;
but this is most fallible, the worm 's an odd worm.
CLEOPATRA
Get thee hence; farewell.
CLOWN
I wish you all joy of the worm.
Selling down his basket.
ACT V, SCENE U i8i
CLEOPATRA
Farewell.
CLOWN
You must think this, look you, that the worm will do
his kind.
CLEOPATRA
Ay, ay; farewell.
CLOWN
Look you, the worm is not to be trusted but in the
keeping of wise people; for, indeed, there is no good-
ness in the worm.
CLEOPATRA
Take thou no care; it shall be heeded.
CLOWN
Very good. Give it nothing, I pray you, for it is
not worth the feeding.
CLEOPATRA
Will it eat me?
CLOWN
You must not think I am so simple but I know the
Devil himself will not eat a woman : I know that a
woman is a dish for the gods, if the Devil dress her not.
But, truly, these same whoreson devils do the gods
great harm in their women; for in every ten that they
make, the devils mar five.
CLEOPATRA
Well, get thee gone; farewell.
CLOWN
Yes, forsooth : I wish you joy o' th' worm.
Exit.
i82 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Recent tr IRAS with a robe, crown, etc,
CLEOPATRA
Give me my robe, put on my crown; I ha/e
Immortal longings in me : now no more
The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip :
Yare, yare, good Iras; quick. Methinks I hear
Antony call; I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act; I hear him mock
The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
To excuse their after wrath ; husband, I come :
Now to that name my courage prove my title!
I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life. So; have you done?
Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian; Iras, long farewell.
Kisses them. Iras falls and dies.
Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall ?
If thou and nature can so gently part.
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,
Which hurts, and is desir'd. Dost thou lie still ?
If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world
It is not worth leave-taking.
CHARMIAN
Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain ; that I may say,
The gods themselves do weep !
CLEOPATRA
This proves me base :
If she first meet the curled Antony,
He Ml make demand of her, and spend that kiss
ACT V, SCENE 11 i83
Which is my heaven to have. Come, thou mortal wretch,
To an asp, which she applies to her breast.
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie : poor venomous fool,
Be angry, and dispatch. O, couldst thou speak.
That I might hear thee call great Caesar ass
Unpolicied !
CHARMIAN
O eastern star !
CLEOPATRA
Peace, peace!
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?
CHARMIAN
O, break! O, break!
CLEOPATRA
As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle, —
Antony ! — Nay, I will take thee too :
Applying another asp to her arm.
What should I stay —
Dies.
CHARMIAN
In this vile world? So, fare thee well.
Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies
A lass unparallel'd. Downy windows, close;
And golden Phoebus never be beheld
Of eyes again so royal ! Your crown 's awry;
1 Ml mend it, and then play.
i84 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA
Enter the GUARD, ruihing in.
FIRST GUARD
Where is the Queen ?
CHARMIAN
speak softly, wake her not.
FIRST GUARD
Caesar hath sent —
CHARMIAN
Too slow a messenger.
AppltM in up.
O, come apace, dispatch! 1 partly feel thee.
FIRST GUARD
Approach, ho ! All 's not well : Caesar 's beguil'd.
SECOND GUARD
There 's Dolabella sent from Caesar; call him.
FIRST GUARD
What work is here! Charmian, is this well done?
CHARMIAN
It is well done, and fitting for a princess
Descended of so many royal kings.
Ah, soldier!
Diet.
Re-enttr DOLABELLA.
DOLABELLA
How goes it here?
SECOND GUARD
All dead.
I i .;
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ACT V, SCENE II i85
DOLABELLA
Caesar, thy thoughts
Touch their effects in this : thyself art coming
To see perform'd the dreaded act which thou
So sought'st to hinder.
Within :
A way there, a way for Caesar!
Ke-tnttr CAESAR and all his train, marching.
DOLABELLA
sir, you are too sure an augurer;
That you did fear is done.
C^SAR
Bravest at the last,
She levelPd at our purposes, and, being royal,
Took her own way. The manner of their deaths?
1 do not see them bleed.
DOLABELLA
Who was last with them ?
FIRST GUARD
A simple countryman, that brought her figs:
This was his basket.
C^SAR
Poison'd, then.
FIRST GUARD
O Caesar,
This Charmian liv'd but now ; she stood and spake :
I found her trimming up the diadem
On her dead mistress; tremblingly she stood
And on the sudden dropp'd.
Antony and CUopatra. 24
J
i86 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CJESAK
O noble weakness!
If they had swallowed poison, 't would appear
By external swelling : but she looks like sleep.
As she would catch another Antony
In her strong toil of grace.
DOLABELLA
Here, on her breast,
There is a vent of blood and soniething blown :
The like is on her arm.
FIRST GUARD
This is an aspic's trail : and these fig-leaves
Have slime upon them, such as th' aspic leaves
Upon the caves of Nile.
C^SAR
Most probable
That so she died ; for her physician tells me
She hath pursuM conclusions infinite
Of easy ways to die. Take up her bed;
And bear her women from the monument :
She shall be buried by her Antony :
No grave upon the earth shall clip in ft
A pair so famous. High events as these
Strike those that make them ; and their story is
No less in pity than his glory which
Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall
In solemn show attend this funeral ;
And then to Rome. Come, Etolabella, see
High order in this great solemnity.
EieuM.
-.- — ^
GLOSSARY AND NOTES
BY J. THOMSON
ACT I
Page I , line 8. — Reneags : an obsolete word properly spelt
reneges, meaning renounces, sets aside, as in « King Lear »,
act. II, sc. II, line 84. It is rhymed with « leagued » in Syl-
vester's Dubartas.
2,2. — Gipsy i lust : gipsy is used in its original sense for
an Egyptian, and in its accidental sense for a bad woman.
2, 10. — The sum : be brief,^sum thy business in a few
words.
3,5. — Wh(re*s Fulvia's process : whore's Fulvia's sum-
mons.
3, 16. — To wit : or, as in the Folios, to weet, that is,
to know.
5, 4. — Charge his horns with garlands: make him a rich
and honourable cuckold, having his horns hung about with
garlands.
7,4. — My children shall have no names : shall be bastards.
8, 3. — Work-a-day : generally written, worky-day.
II, 2. — Euphrates : here written with a short a, Eu-
phrates.
II, 12. — Earing : ploughing, tilling.
1 5, 2. — Expedience : haste, speed, meaning in this place,
sudden departure.
■ 19" CLOSiARY AND NOTES
1 5, 17. — Countr's hair: referring 10 the belief ihal a
horse's hair steeped long in corrupted water becomes a living
worm.
19, 7. — GarboiU : confuted contenlioni, turmoils.
19, 9. — Saertd viali : the tiny lachrymatory vials which
the Romans sometimes put into the funeral urns of kinsfolk
and friends.
11,9. — Laurel'^ victory: belter, laurel victory, which more-
over was the language of Shakespeare's time.
i3, t. — Malurt in knowUdgf : apparently a slip, as the
sense seems to require the word immature; or, perhaps the
Poet meant that, boys old enough to know their duty pawn,
i3, 19. — Ear and wound: plough and wound.
17, 8. — Burgontt : a close-fitting helmet, first used by the
Burguodians, but unknown to Cleopatra and to Antony.
18, 10. — Arm-girt sUtd : a much-disputed phrase^ the
Folios have arm-gaunt, implying a horse gaunt with the conti-
nued weight of armour. Many substituted words, as termagant
and arrogant, have been proposed, but, whatever epithet was
used, Malone thinks it was intended as descriptive of a beautiful
ACT II
3i, i5. — Salt : lecherous.
3i, 1 5. — Wan'd lip : a much disputed phrase ; in old edi-
tions it is written wand and apparently stands for wan.
33, -J. — Space for farther travft : a time in which a longer
journey might have been made.
37, 17. — You havt not to makt it with : the interpolation
of not is unmetrical : probably written, « you n' have n.
38, 10. — GarboiU: lanitums.
38, 17. — Miitivt : Used for messenger,
^o, 1 1 . — Your tomidtratt slant : an elliptical phrase de-
pending on the expression of the voice, cc[uivaleni 10 " hence-
GLOSSARY AND NOTES I91
forth I am as silent as a stone ». Probably- a forgotten proverb
like, a silent as a stone ».
41, 17. — Would be tales : probably ^ a would be half tales »,
to complete the metre and also agree with the next line,
« where now half tales be truths ».
43, II. — My sister's view: equivalent to, view of my
sister.
45, 18. — Tended her i* th' eyes : watched the smallest indi-
cation given by Cleopatra : discovered her wrll by her eyes.
45, 19. — Made their bends adornings: in paying their obei-
sances to Cleopatra the humble bendings of their bodies were
so graceful that they added to their beauty.
45, 22. — Yarely : readily, dexterously.
46, 1 3. — Cropped: was fruitful.
47, 4. — Riggish : rigg is an ancient word meaning a
strumpet.
48, 8. — Thither : here written for hither.
48, 9. — My motion : my active part, my mind.
49, 17. — Quails : the Romans fought quails, like cocks,
pitting them within a hoop.
50, 7. — The Mount : that is, Mount Misenura.
5 1, 3. — Bdliards : an anachronism; billiards were un-
known for a thousand years after the time of Cleopatra.
57, II. — But: some read « not »; and others write the
line « that art not what thou'rt sore of ». The line is very dis-
puted, and is probably a broken sentence, reading thus :
O, that hit fault should make a knave of thee.
Thai art not! — What? ihou Vi ture of 'i?
are you sure that he is married to Octavia?
59, 22. — Fear us : affright us.
62, 1 3. — North's Plutarch 1579 reads in margin : « Cleo-
patra trussed up in a mattresse and so brought to [Julius]
Caesar, upon Apollodonis backe. »
66, 1 5. — Plants: here used for soles of the feet, from the
Latin.
iqi Cl.OSSAftY AND NOTES
67, 10. — Partisan : a heavj kind of halberd.
67, 17, — Foijon : for foizon, a french word signifying
plency.
68, n. — Pjramis« ; in use in Shakespeare's time for py-
ramids ; moreover Lepidus was nearly intoxicated and his
tongue began to split what it speaks ».
69, 6. — U own organs : would now be written, its own
69, 9. — It own eotuur : it, would now be written, its.
70, 1 3. — Inclips : embraces.
71, 7. — Ktcli : increase the world's giddy course.
71, 10. — Slrikt Iht vtiitU : as we now say, chink glasses,
or, break a bottle.
73, 1 1. — Tht holding : the chorus, or, the burden of the
song.
77, 4. — Pacorus was the son of Orodes, king of Parthia.
78, 10, — Htm wt serve : doubtless, him we serve, is what
Shakespeare wrote, but modern editors read more gramma-
tically B when he we serve's away ».
80, 6. — Thau Arabian bird : the phccnix.
80, 1^. — Shores: the scaly wing-cases of beetles : see, in
u Macbeth >, the u shard-borne beetle n.
81, ^. — Band: band, and bond, in Shakespeare's time
were synonymous.
81, II. — Cloud in 's fact : a black spot on a horse's fore-
head is regarded as a great blemish, it being supposed to indi-
cate an ill-temper.
85,5; — M( . a slip for « [ ..
90, 5. — What is tht success ; what follows? or, what is the
issue ?
90, 7, — Kivalily : equal rank.
92, II. — Qufnsy ; fastidious, disgusted.
GL0SSAR1C AND NOTES 1 93
94, 6. — Ostentation : a slip in metre for a ostent », a word
frequently used by Shakespeare.
96, 5. — Trull : here used as synonymous to harlot.
96, II. — Forspoke : spoken against : compounded like
forbid.
97, 4. — Merely: entirely, absolutely lost.
98, 18. — Yare : dextrous, manageable.
102, 9. — Antoniad: Plutarch says this was the name of
Cleopatra*s ship.
io3, 4. — Cantle : fragment, or rather, corner.
io3, 8. — Kibaldred: ribaudred in Folios: probably « ribald-
rid nag », that is strumpet.
io3, 12. — Breese : gad-fly.
io3, 16. — Loof'd: to loof is to bring a ship close to the
wind.
109, 2. — Within: superfluous, and apparently inserted in
error.
109, 5. — Schoolmaster : Euphronius was schoolmaster to
Cleopatra's children by Antony.
109, 1 3. — His grand sea : his, would now-a-days be sup-
plied by its.
110, 19. — Offers: the sentence is transposed, and means
« add more offers from thine invention ».
112, 5. — Mered question : the question being limited to
him : used as a participial adjective formed from mere, or,
meer.
1 13, 21. — To square : to quarrel.
I 1 5, 1 5. — Shroud : shelter.
116, I. — Deputation : by, proxy, deputy.
1 16, 9. — Your Cxsar's father : Julius Caesar was not the
father, but the great uncle of Octavius (Augustus) whom he
adopted.
117, 3. — Muss: scramble; but more likely an allusion to
a boy*s game so called. The game is mentioned by Rabelais.
117, 10. — Hand of she : a slip for « her ».
117, II. — Was Cleopatra : since she ceased to be Cleopatra.
Antony and CUopalra. 2S
194 GLOSSARY AND NOTES
1 18, 3. — Feeders : dependents.
118, 21. — The hill of Ba$an : from Psalm LXVIII, i5.
119, 4. — Yare: nimble, adroit.
120, I. — Enfranched : abbreviated form of enfranchised.
1 20, 9. — Ties his points: acts as his body servant : the points
tied the doublet to the hose; but not in Rome.
120, 17. — Discandying : thawing.
121, 18. — Gaudy : festive : gaudy is still an epithet bes-
towed on certain festival days at the Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge.
ACT IV
12 3, 4. — Ways to die : Shakespeare was misled by the am-
biguity of the old translation of Plutarch, a Caesar answered,
that he [Antony] had many other ways t'o die, than so ».
125, 5. — Woo*t thou : wilt thou.
126, 16. — Yield you : reward you.
127, I. — Ho, ho, ho! : ho is an interjection commanding
to desist or leave off.
i3o, 2. — My chuck : my chicken.
I 3o, 7. — False, false; this, this : this is the piece you ought
to have given me, and not that of which you asked the use.
1 32, 4. — Well said: well done : see « As you like it »,
act II, sc. VI, 1. 14., and « Hamlet », act. I, sc. v, 1. 162.
I 34, 10. — Three-nook'd world: Europe, Asia, and Africa,
the then whole known world.
I 36, 5. — Blows my heart: swells, or, smites, my heart.
1 36, 1 5. — Droven : a slip for driven.
137, 2. — i4/i H: an ache : so pronounced.
1 38, 2. — Gests : deeds, exploits.
1 38, 8. — Clip : Embrace, enfold.
I 38, 1 5. — Proof of harness : armour of proof.
139, 1 5. — Owe them : query, own them.
139, 21. — Tabourines : small drums.
140, 2. — Court of guard : room where the guard musters.
GLOSSARY AND NOTES 195
142, 2. — Raught him : reached him.
142, 3. — Demurely : soberly, solemnly.
143, 3. — Go we up : there is a hiatus here in the text :
the words proposed correspond with the text of North's Plu-
tarch.
144, 10. — Triple turnd: Cleopatra was first the mistress
of Julius Caesar, then of Cneius Pompey, and afterwards of
Antony.
145, 2. — Crownei : coronet.
145, 12. — Doits : the smallest coins; half farthings.
145, 18. — Teach me, Alcides : Hercules, from whom Antony
claimed descent, and who threw into the sea his servant Li-
chas, who brought him the poisoned shirt of Nessus from De-
janira.
146, 4. — Than Telamon : Ajax who went mad about the
armour of Achilles.
146, 5. — Emboss'd: blown, and foaming at the mouth.
147, 12. — Knave: servant.
149, 6. — Thy continent : the thing that contains thee.
i5o, 19. — Pleached: intertwined, folded.
1 58, 2. — Housewife Fortune : pronounced hussif : a hussy,
wanton : see similar use of a housewife » in a Henry IV »,
part II, « Henry V » and « Othello ».
169, 6. — Remarkable : a word, in Shakespeare's time, of
very grave import : conspicuous.
169, i3. — Chares: task-work.
ACT V
161, 2. — Frustrate : frustrated.
166, 3. — Fortune*s knave : the servant of fortune.
169, 2. — If idle talk : « if it will be necessary now, for once
to waste a moment in idle talk of my purpose, I will not sleep
neither. » Probably a line is lost after necessary, e. g. « I '11 not
so much as syllable a word ».
169, I 3. — Pyramides : not pyramises (as at page 68).
196 GLOSSARY AND NOTES
171, II. — Plates : pieces of silver money.
173, 6. — Project : proctor, or, shape, mj cause.
175, 8. — Envy : malice, spite.
175,11. — Modern friends: commonplace, unimportant,
friends.
175, 19. — Forbear, Seleucus : retire, Seleucus.
178, 7. — Scald : a word of contempt implying poverty,
disease, filth.
178, 12. — Boy my greatness : the parts of women on the
stage were acted by boys.
1 78, 18. — Absurd intents : possibly an error for « assured ».
179, 3. — Sirrah Iras : sirrah was a familiar address applied
to women as well as to men.
180, 2. — Worm : serpent : here it is the asp.
182, 2. — Yare : quickly, nimbly.
i8>, 12. — Dost fain : as Cleopatra says « farewell » to
Iras she applies an asp to her attendant; hence afterwards her
murder of Iras, strikes her as cowardly, and she exclaims
« This proves me base ».
182, 23. — Intrinsicate : intricate, or, tightly drawn.
i83, I. — Ass unpolicied : ass without more policy than,
etc.
186, 7. — Pursud conclusions: tried experiments.
186, II. — Clip: embrace, enfold.
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